4 ms·

I am hoping for an eBook. I don't have a lot of space for books, but my computer or phone is always nearby.

krasin 4y ago
There's a free ebook by a different author, Dr. Stefan Salewski, "Computer Programming with the Nim Programming Language": https://ssalewski.de/nimprogramming.html https://ssalewski.de/nimprogramming.html
auggierose 4y ago
An e-book is going to heavily (and negatively) impact the sales figures for the print book. So I wouldn't hold out for that. Looking at the price of the book, he wants to make money from it, so no e-book is probably the right strategy.
- fprotthetarball 4y ago
  I have no problem paying the same price for an eBook as print. If there is some reason a physical product must be involved, bundle both. I'll keep the eBook and donate the physical book to a library.
- e12e 4y ago
  > An e-book is going to heavily (and negatively) impact the sales figures for the print book. Well, if the price is the same, that hardly matters? Or are you implying unpaid/illicit downloads will be worse with a legal digital version as opposed to an illicitly scanned copy? After buying an e-reader I can't defend buying print books from an environmental standpoint - it may be a sunk cost/resources fallacy - but with all the infrastructure for digital production, distribution and reading in place - print copies are a strict waste of resources.
  - gunapologist99 4y ago
    You can read a print book without wasting electricity every time you open it and the toxic materials used to produce a e-reader. Reading print is still a much more enjoyable experience (except in the tub -- a waterproof Kindle is still great and lightweight for that!), especially with the slow speed of e-ink screens. I can't defend ebooks compared to the reading, sharing, and the later selling at a used book store my cast-off print books. I've even gotten O'Reilly books from a decade ago at used book stores that are great to read and look great on my shelf, and I love finding some old novel by some forgotten author instead of whatever the latest Amazon bestseller is. And I don't have to worry about the Orwellian deletion of my books from my e-reader: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18am...
    - DennisP 4y ago
      Nevertheless, many people like ebooks, for a variety of reasons. And I'll put the marginal environmental cost of another book on my reader, against the cost of producing and shipping a physical book, and then turning on a lamp to read it at night anyway.
    - Volundr 4y ago
      I'm dubious the environmental difference is that much. 1 e-reader vs how many thousands of books? It's seems to me the e-reader is a one and done cost, but each book comes with it's own trees cut down for the paper, shipping, etc. As for the deletion I'm with you. That's why I always buy DRM free, or promptly crack anything I buy.
    - pjmlp 4y ago
      There is the mass murder question of trees for books that never get sold and are eventually thrown into a dump, alongside the chemicals used in the publishing process.
    - konart 4y ago
      >You can read a print book without wasting electricity You don't 'waste' electricity, you waste your money. And in many places electricity is (much) cheaper than (good) paper. >toxic materials used to produce a e-reader. Surely you realise that different chemicals are used during paper production too? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_sulfide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_sulfide and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hydroxide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hydroxide for example. And this depends on paper type too. >Reading print is still a much more enjoyable experience And this is entirely subjective. >I can't defend ebooks compared to the reading, sharing, and the later selling While I 100% agree with selling option, sharing is at least as easy with epub. Unless we are talking about a book from Amazon or something. In most cases you can just send a file over your preferred messenger.
    - e12e 4y ago
      > You can read a print book without wasting electricity every time you open it This is generally true for ebooks as well, as I only have electric heating. Both probably require more electricity for lighting anyway. > and the toxic materials used to produce a e-reader. I assume an ebook reader uses more resources to produce than a book, but 1) I already have a reader, and 2) I have for example e-books I inherited from my dad - that's approximately a thousand books. Even just moving them into my apartment would require non-trivial resources. > Reading print is still a much more enjoyable experience I don't really agree. Especially not for technical books. > I can't defend ebooks compared to the reading, sharing, and the later selling at a used book store my cast-off print books. Agree that the Kindle/Amazon drm/marketplace is pretty bad. Not all books have draconic drm, though - and in such cases it's much easier to share a book with a friend that has moved over seas for example. > I've even gotten O'Reilly books from a decade ago at used book stores that are great to read and look great on my shelf, Sure, but in the event this is a problem - it's also a drm problem, not a problem inherent to ebooks. As for books about "programing language x version y, with best practices as of year z" - I fully expect them to be mostly outdated after 5 to 10 years - maybe replaced by a new version. > and I love finding some old novel by some forgotten author instead of whatever the latest Amazon bestseller is. I've never discovered books from the AZ bestseller lists, but I've bought a few classics. There are always going to be books that are hard to get - like the excellent: Howard McCord book: "The Man Who Walked to The Moon" which was self-published if I'm not mistaken. I found it in a thrift store in Berlin. As it happens, it's now available for the Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Walked-Moon-Novella/dp/092970178X https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Walked-Moon-Novella/dp/092970... > And I don't have to worry about the Orwellian deletion of my books from my e-reader Again - a market/drm problem (and a real one for sure). I really do hope we will see more diversity in ebook sales, sharing, re-sale and lending.
- cercatrova 4y ago
  > An e-book is going to heavily (and negatively) impact the sales figures for the print book What? Do you have a source on that claim? For me, I only get ebooks for programming books because I can have the IDE side by side with the PDF, no need to continuously look at the physical book and then back into my IDE, and I can copy paste code examples.
  - jjtheblunt 4y ago
    totally agree re user experience with ide...
  - deltaonefour 4y ago
    - cercatrova 4y ago
      You have a few different issues with the assumptions in your comment. First, yes, one can ask for a source without a sincere request for it, known as sealioning. However, that was not what I was doing, because: > While statistical data is much better then common sense reasoning, it's still possible to make claim via deduction and even anecdotal evidence. Oftentimes, intuition is not correct. Think for example to the Monty Hall experiment where many people thought that the odds of two doors holding the winning prize, after a third door were opened, to be 1/2. However, on actual examination and statistical analysis, it is actually 2/3. Similarly, simply because you believe that ebook sales reduce print book sales intuitively does not mean that this be so. In fact, based on other studies, it seems that piracy actually increases sales [0]. > Anecdotally if I see a book I like, the first thing I do is google for that book with a ".epub" or ".pdf" extension so I can download it for free. I figure other do-gooders are going to pay for the book so I might as well freeload a free version. It's logically the most cost effective move. Second, just because you pirate does not mean everyone does. Ebook sales have overtaken print sales, showing that most consumers actually do not pirate. Those that do an action overestimate the percentage of others who also perform that same action, this is a known cognitive effect. All in all, you have no source except intuition that can be shown to be wrong. [0] https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/e-book-piracy-may-have-unexpected-benefits-for-publishers-1.1123710 https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/e-book-piracy-may-have-unexp...?
- dmitriid 4y ago
  > Looking at the price of the book, he wants to make money from it The price of a printed book includes: - the price of materials - the price of printing - the price of transportation - the price of storage - the margins and profits of all of the above - the margins and the profit of the store And then, and only then, the author making money, if any. How is e-book going to impact the author's profit, exactly?
  - konkordat 4y ago
    Manufacturing of a book is really cheap. It's just a little part of overall cost. Nowadays it may cost more becauase of higher prices of paper. Everything else is managed by amazon for their cut. Stop shilling. The author is just greedy.
crispyalmond 4y ago
I'd like this too, I'm not one to read a physical book, but I'm constantly reading on my phone & computer

There's a free ebook by a different author, Dr. Stefan Salewski, "Computer Programming with the Nim Programming Language": https://ssalewski.de/nimprogramming.html https://ssalewski.de/nimprogramming.html

auggierose 4y ago

An e-book is going to heavily (and negatively) impact the sales figures for the print book. So I wouldn't hold out for that. Looking at the price of the book, he wants to make money from it, so no e-book is probably the right strategy.

fprotthetarball 4y ago
I have no problem paying the same price for an eBook as print. If there is some reason a physical product must be involved, bundle both. I'll keep the eBook and donate the physical book to a library.
e12e 4y ago
> An e-book is going to heavily (and negatively) impact the sales figures for the print book. Well, if the price is the same, that hardly matters? Or are you implying unpaid/illicit downloads will be worse with a legal digital version as opposed to an illicitly scanned copy? After buying an e-reader I can't defend buying print books from an environmental standpoint - it may be a sunk cost/resources fallacy - but with all the infrastructure for digital production, distribution and reading in place - print copies are a strict waste of resources.
- gunapologist99 4y ago
  You can read a print book without wasting electricity every time you open it and the toxic materials used to produce a e-reader. Reading print is still a much more enjoyable experience (except in the tub -- a waterproof Kindle is still great and lightweight for that!), especially with the slow speed of e-ink screens. I can't defend ebooks compared to the reading, sharing, and the later selling at a used book store my cast-off print books. I've even gotten O'Reilly books from a decade ago at used book stores that are great to read and look great on my shelf, and I love finding some old novel by some forgotten author instead of whatever the latest Amazon bestseller is. And I don't have to worry about the Orwellian deletion of my books from my e-reader: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18am...
  - DennisP 4y ago
    Nevertheless, many people like ebooks, for a variety of reasons. And I'll put the marginal environmental cost of another book on my reader, against the cost of producing and shipping a physical book, and then turning on a lamp to read it at night anyway.
  - Volundr 4y ago
    I'm dubious the environmental difference is that much. 1 e-reader vs how many thousands of books? It's seems to me the e-reader is a one and done cost, but each book comes with it's own trees cut down for the paper, shipping, etc. As for the deletion I'm with you. That's why I always buy DRM free, or promptly crack anything I buy.
  - pjmlp 4y ago
    There is the mass murder question of trees for books that never get sold and are eventually thrown into a dump, alongside the chemicals used in the publishing process.
  - konart 4y ago
    >You can read a print book without wasting electricity You don't 'waste' electricity, you waste your money. And in many places electricity is (much) cheaper than (good) paper. >toxic materials used to produce a e-reader. Surely you realise that different chemicals are used during paper production too? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_sulfide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_sulfide and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hydroxide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hydroxide for example. And this depends on paper type too. >Reading print is still a much more enjoyable experience And this is entirely subjective. >I can't defend ebooks compared to the reading, sharing, and the later selling While I 100% agree with selling option, sharing is at least as easy with epub. Unless we are talking about a book from Amazon or something. In most cases you can just send a file over your preferred messenger.
  - e12e 4y ago
    > You can read a print book without wasting electricity every time you open it This is generally true for ebooks as well, as I only have electric heating. Both probably require more electricity for lighting anyway. > and the toxic materials used to produce a e-reader. I assume an ebook reader uses more resources to produce than a book, but 1) I already have a reader, and 2) I have for example e-books I inherited from my dad - that's approximately a thousand books. Even just moving them into my apartment would require non-trivial resources. > Reading print is still a much more enjoyable experience I don't really agree. Especially not for technical books. > I can't defend ebooks compared to the reading, sharing, and the later selling at a used book store my cast-off print books. Agree that the Kindle/Amazon drm/marketplace is pretty bad. Not all books have draconic drm, though - and in such cases it's much easier to share a book with a friend that has moved over seas for example. > I've even gotten O'Reilly books from a decade ago at used book stores that are great to read and look great on my shelf, Sure, but in the event this is a problem - it's also a drm problem, not a problem inherent to ebooks. As for books about "programing language x version y, with best practices as of year z" - I fully expect them to be mostly outdated after 5 to 10 years - maybe replaced by a new version. > and I love finding some old novel by some forgotten author instead of whatever the latest Amazon bestseller is. I've never discovered books from the AZ bestseller lists, but I've bought a few classics. There are always going to be books that are hard to get - like the excellent: Howard McCord book: "The Man Who Walked to The Moon" which was self-published if I'm not mistaken. I found it in a thrift store in Berlin. As it happens, it's now available for the Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Walked-Moon-Novella/dp/092970178X https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Walked-Moon-Novella/dp/092970... > And I don't have to worry about the Orwellian deletion of my books from my e-reader Again - a market/drm problem (and a real one for sure). I really do hope we will see more diversity in ebook sales, sharing, re-sale and lending.
cercatrova 4y ago
> An e-book is going to heavily (and negatively) impact the sales figures for the print book What? Do you have a source on that claim? For me, I only get ebooks for programming books because I can have the IDE side by side with the PDF, no need to continuously look at the physical book and then back into my IDE, and I can copy paste code examples.
- jjtheblunt 4y ago
  totally agree re user experience with ide...
- deltaonefour 4y ago
  - cercatrova 4y ago
    You have a few different issues with the assumptions in your comment. First, yes, one can ask for a source without a sincere request for it, known as sealioning. However, that was not what I was doing, because: > While statistical data is much better then common sense reasoning, it's still possible to make claim via deduction and even anecdotal evidence. Oftentimes, intuition is not correct. Think for example to the Monty Hall experiment where many people thought that the odds of two doors holding the winning prize, after a third door were opened, to be 1/2. However, on actual examination and statistical analysis, it is actually 2/3. Similarly, simply because you believe that ebook sales reduce print book sales intuitively does not mean that this be so. In fact, based on other studies, it seems that piracy actually increases sales [0]. > Anecdotally if I see a book I like, the first thing I do is google for that book with a ".epub" or ".pdf" extension so I can download it for free. I figure other do-gooders are going to pay for the book so I might as well freeload a free version. It's logically the most cost effective move. Second, just because you pirate does not mean everyone does. Ebook sales have overtaken print sales, showing that most consumers actually do not pirate. Those that do an action overestimate the percentage of others who also perform that same action, this is a known cognitive effect. All in all, you have no source except intuition that can be shown to be wrong. [0] https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/e-book-piracy-may-have-unexpected-benefits-for-publishers-1.1123710 https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/e-book-piracy-may-have-unexp...?
dmitriid 4y ago
> Looking at the price of the book, he wants to make money from it The price of a printed book includes: - the price of materials - the price of printing - the price of transportation - the price of storage - the margins and profits of all of the above - the margins and the profit of the store And then, and only then, the author making money, if any. How is e-book going to impact the author's profit, exactly?
- konkordat 4y ago
  Manufacturing of a book is really cheap. It's just a little part of overall cost. Nowadays it may cost more becauase of higher prices of paper. Everything else is managed by amazon for their cut. Stop shilling. The author is just greedy.

crispyalmond 4y ago

I'd like this too, I'm not one to read a physical book, but I'm constantly reading on my phone & computer