4 ms·
> In terms of dollars, ebooks represent less than 7 percent of the entire U.S. book trade. This is surprising to me given the quality of e-readers out there no
by tejohnso 3y ago
> In terms of dollars, ebooks represent less than 7 percent of the entire U.S. book trade.
This is surprising to me given the quality of e-readers out there now. The experience is quite nice, and you don't end up taking up a bunch of space or making a mess with physical books lying around.
- ghaff 3y agoEbooks aren't good for everything--especially on a smaller format eink reader. But I still find it a bit surprising, and I'm sure this is true of others as well, that ebooks didn't become more dominant--especially for fiction.
- Finnucane 3y agoI oversee ebook production for a university press, and getting anything remotely complex to work right can still be challenging.
- ghaff 3y agoIt's gotten better. I tend to buy guidebooks preferentially on Kindle these days. But I still get cookbooks in hardcover unless they're a super-bargain as well as "coffee table books" of course.
- GuB-42 3y agoProblem with ebooks is that you get product of a lesser value for a similar price. A paper book doesn't need a extra device you have to pay for, will outlast you with proper care, is DRM free and can be lent or resold. There is even a trend of treating physical books as collectors items, so you may even get some return on investment! Also "book trade" doesn't include piracy, which works as the "solution" to the value problem.
- ghaff 3y agoFor me, it's travel that's the big win. There's space at home as well (and moving if applicable) but that's mostly manageable if you prune things now and then. If I didn't travel by air I'd probably care a lot less.
- bluescrn 3y agoE-readers are great for fiction and other text-only content, but the average e-ink reader is useless for textbooks and reference books with a lot of images/diagrams/photos.