4 ms·

Why is there no dead tree version? As much as everyone here loves their e-readers, some of us still find hardcopies more enjoyable. I, for one, won't be purch

Why is there no dead tree version? As much as everyone here loves their e-readers, some of us still find hardcopies more enjoyable. I, for one, won't be purchasing for this reason only.

jmtame 15y ago
I'm genuinely curious why you prefer a paperback, could you elaborate? Also, wanted to ask: have you tried the Kindle app on your Mac/PC and mobile device yet?
- jackowayed 15y ago
  I personally prefer physical books because I really fully own them. I love the Kindle experience, and if I could buy books in a DRM-free format that guaranteed that I'll be able to read on every device I could want forever, I can loan them out/resell them, etc. I'd do it (and I have--eg. Pragmatic Programmers books). But being locked into whatever devices Amazon decides to support and not having some of the freedom isn't ok with me. There also seems to be no quality control on Kindle books. I'm now pretty much afraid to buy any book that doesn't offer a sample of the first few pages. I almost bought Dante's Inferno on Kindle because it was ~3x cheaper, but then I downloaded the sample. The print version of this book has the Italian on the left side pages and the English on the right side. They seem to have just run that version of it through some Kindle-ifier, meaning that there was one print-page worth of Italian, followed by one print-page worth of English, repeating. Just an awful experience.
- wheels 15y ago
  I can answer for myself: • I read books when I want to escape computers, the internet and the distractions they bring. That's part of what I love about them. • I don't own an ebook reader or a tablet. I don't have any plans to purchase one. I have no desire to read a book on my phone, and the only books I read on my laptop are technical books with no real value as literature. • I like physical collections of things. I've never bought an eBook, nor music, nor movies to be downloaded. I have hundreds of CDs and vinyl records and around a thousand paper books. Books aren't simply things to read, but a physical representation of my life's history: virtually everything I've been interested in in my life is displayed on my bookshelves. • I can give a book away. I do that a lot. Two walls of my living room are covered in bookshelves. When I'm talking to someone and there's a book I think they should read, I give it to them. I've bought my favorite books half a dozen times, because I want to have them around to give away. • I mostly read books away from home, in places that I don't want to whoop out an expensive device (because it makes it a target for theft, because I think it looks dorky) -- parks, the subway, cafés. This is connected to the first point -- I like getting away from the distractions of the internet and being somewhere where I can just read. • I can throw books in my bag when I'm headed to places where there's a high propensity for me to lose or have my bag stolen. Catching the subway on the way to a concert? If I lose my book that's $10 down the tubes, not $100.
  - dionidium 15y ago
    Your last two points resonate. Whatever book I'm currently reading gets carried around with me quite a bit. It's thrown (and left) in the car, on my desk at work. It is not exceptionally well taken care of. It's just a cheap paperback, in most cases; losing it won't matter much. There's a kind of cognitive tax to carrying around something you don't want to lose or have to be careful with. Besides, I can only read one book at a time, so the ability to access any book other than the one I'm currently reading doesn't offer much value.
  - davidw 15y ago
    All good points, but I thought I'd point out that... > I read books when I want to escape computers, the internet and the distractions they bring. That's part of what I love about them. ... the Kindle is actually fairly good on this count. Checking email on it is so clunky as to not be a temptation at all. It doesn't make noises or have alerts, and it has a very long batter life. So if you get into a book, the fact that you're reading it on a device does fade into the background, leaving you to concentrate on the content.
    - gbog 15y ago
      I concur, kindle.app and variants, kindle fire, all have nothing to do with the real Kindle, which just a book, slightly more convenient. Like GP, I also buy, collect, give paper books, and have a wall of them in our living room, including all Balzac in a 18xx edition. But when I travel I take my Kindle instead of spending one hour pondering which book to take.
  - jmtame 15y ago
    I would recommend trying out the Kindle app. You could download the app in Chrome and read out of one of your tabs. The books overall are a lot cheaper; you don't need a Kindle device; more of the money goes directly to the author. You still have all the same benefits you mentioned above, minus the ability to turn off distractions: • You don't need to own an ebook reader or tablet. Amazon's Kindle App is free and works on practically anything: Mac, PC, iPhone, even a Chrome plugin if you don't like having a desktop app. • You keep a physical collection in your reader just as you do a bookcase. It's not the exact same thing, but that's something I noticed recently: hardly anyone visits me at my apartment, but I am often going to meet people at cafes and with me I bring my laptop or phone, and on those I have my entire collection of books. • You can loan a Kindle book to a friend on Amazon, and it's free. • You can read on any device, and you almost always will have your cell phone with you. I usually do most of my reading on the BART or CalTrain, or waiting in lines. • You don't need to carry a bag or remember any books, if you have a digital collection they're always with any of your devices. If your device is stolen, you still have your digital book collection.
- gsivil 15y ago
  While I was a kid I was going almost everyday to my father's bookshelves and I was browsing random books: science fiction novels, books about sports and their rules, encyclopedias, novels, poetry, whatever I could find. I am sure that this experience made me love knowledge more and give me a also an additional bond with my father. Maybe people do not realize that yet, but giving to a kid a GB of ebooks is not the same.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

Why is there no dead tree version? As much as everyone here loves their e-readers, some of us still find hardcopies more enjoyable. I, for one, won't be purchasing for this reason only.

jmtame 15y ago

I'm genuinely curious why you prefer a paperback, could you elaborate? Also, wanted to ask: have you tried the Kindle app on your Mac/PC and mobile device yet?

jackowayed 15y ago
I personally prefer physical books because I really fully own them. I love the Kindle experience, and if I could buy books in a DRM-free format that guaranteed that I'll be able to read on every device I could want forever, I can loan them out/resell them, etc. I'd do it (and I have--eg. Pragmatic Programmers books). But being locked into whatever devices Amazon decides to support and not having some of the freedom isn't ok with me. There also seems to be no quality control on Kindle books. I'm now pretty much afraid to buy any book that doesn't offer a sample of the first few pages. I almost bought Dante's Inferno on Kindle because it was ~3x cheaper, but then I downloaded the sample. The print version of this book has the Italian on the left side pages and the English on the right side. They seem to have just run that version of it through some Kindle-ifier, meaning that there was one print-page worth of Italian, followed by one print-page worth of English, repeating. Just an awful experience.
wheels 15y ago
I can answer for myself: • I read books when I want to escape computers, the internet and the distractions they bring. That's part of what I love about them. • I don't own an ebook reader or a tablet. I don't have any plans to purchase one. I have no desire to read a book on my phone, and the only books I read on my laptop are technical books with no real value as literature. • I like physical collections of things. I've never bought an eBook, nor music, nor movies to be downloaded. I have hundreds of CDs and vinyl records and around a thousand paper books. Books aren't simply things to read, but a physical representation of my life's history: virtually everything I've been interested in in my life is displayed on my bookshelves. • I can give a book away. I do that a lot. Two walls of my living room are covered in bookshelves. When I'm talking to someone and there's a book I think they should read, I give it to them. I've bought my favorite books half a dozen times, because I want to have them around to give away. • I mostly read books away from home, in places that I don't want to whoop out an expensive device (because it makes it a target for theft, because I think it looks dorky) -- parks, the subway, cafés. This is connected to the first point -- I like getting away from the distractions of the internet and being somewhere where I can just read. • I can throw books in my bag when I'm headed to places where there's a high propensity for me to lose or have my bag stolen. Catching the subway on the way to a concert? If I lose my book that's $10 down the tubes, not $100.
- dionidium 15y ago
  Your last two points resonate. Whatever book I'm currently reading gets carried around with me quite a bit. It's thrown (and left) in the car, on my desk at work. It is not exceptionally well taken care of. It's just a cheap paperback, in most cases; losing it won't matter much. There's a kind of cognitive tax to carrying around something you don't want to lose or have to be careful with. Besides, I can only read one book at a time, so the ability to access any book other than the one I'm currently reading doesn't offer much value.
- davidw 15y ago
  All good points, but I thought I'd point out that... > I read books when I want to escape computers, the internet and the distractions they bring. That's part of what I love about them. ... the Kindle is actually fairly good on this count. Checking email on it is so clunky as to not be a temptation at all. It doesn't make noises or have alerts, and it has a very long batter life. So if you get into a book, the fact that you're reading it on a device does fade into the background, leaving you to concentrate on the content.
  - gbog 15y ago
    I concur, kindle.app and variants, kindle fire, all have nothing to do with the real Kindle, which just a book, slightly more convenient. Like GP, I also buy, collect, give paper books, and have a wall of them in our living room, including all Balzac in a 18xx edition. But when I travel I take my Kindle instead of spending one hour pondering which book to take.
- jmtame 15y ago
  I would recommend trying out the Kindle app. You could download the app in Chrome and read out of one of your tabs. The books overall are a lot cheaper; you don't need a Kindle device; more of the money goes directly to the author. You still have all the same benefits you mentioned above, minus the ability to turn off distractions: • You don't need to own an ebook reader or tablet. Amazon's Kindle App is free and works on practically anything: Mac, PC, iPhone, even a Chrome plugin if you don't like having a desktop app. • You keep a physical collection in your reader just as you do a bookcase. It's not the exact same thing, but that's something I noticed recently: hardly anyone visits me at my apartment, but I am often going to meet people at cafes and with me I bring my laptop or phone, and on those I have my entire collection of books. • You can loan a Kindle book to a friend on Amazon, and it's free. • You can read on any device, and you almost always will have your cell phone with you. I usually do most of my reading on the BART or CalTrain, or waiting in lines. • You don't need to carry a bag or remember any books, if you have a digital collection they're always with any of your devices. If your device is stolen, you still have your digital book collection.
gsivil 15y ago
While I was a kid I was going almost everyday to my father's bookshelves and I was browsing random books: science fiction novels, books about sports and their rules, encyclopedias, novels, poetry, whatever I could find. I am sure that this experience made me love knowledge more and give me a also an additional bond with my father. Maybe people do not realize that yet, but giving to a kid a GB of ebooks is not the same.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]