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I moved entirely to buying hardcovers. It is easier on the eye, and paperbacks, especially in India, are horribly bad quality. The cost is a matter of perspecti
by Brajeshwar 7mo ago
I moved entirely to buying hardcovers. It is easier on the eye, and paperbacks, especially in India, are horribly bad quality. The cost is a matter of perspective (or geography). A typical hardcover costs ~₹2,000 (~$20) which is the norm, but that is a costly thing in India (is roughly the cost of the tea/milk supply for the whole month for my family.)
Of course, this makes me choose my books wisely and with intention. I’m still on the lookout for an ebook reader (no more Kindles). I still want to keep a good ratio where for every 5 ebooks, I should have at least 2 physical books.
So, books are NOT cheap, but the cost is what to consider if it is “worth it” to you.
- georgefrowny 7mo agoFor the reader, Kobos are a solid choice that can run open source software (and the software exists, it's not theoretical). My problem with physical books is mostly the physical storage space. I have to be really careful not to fill the house with them.
- ceplabs 7mo agoSo the print in hardbacks is better quality than paperbacks? I had no idea.
- amonith 7mo agoIt is especially true for MMPBs (mass market paperbacks). It's a specific term for a specific format of books that are just recently being phased out. You can find more info about this online.
- bombcar 7mo agoThere are tons of price cuts that paperbacks (and especially MMPBs) use that they don't bother with on (most) hardcovers, because if you're getting a hardcover you probably don't care about absolute lowest cost. And there's stuff much cheaper than MMPB but they're very rare (think phonebooks and old catalogs).
- akrakesh 7mo agoI guess the hardcovers are better because they are not printed in India. From what I've seen with nonfiction books, the ones printed in India are only softcovers—pathetic paper/build quality, and poor readability because they're smaller than their US counterpart (usually 19.8 cm long in India compared to 23.5 cm in the US), and the US layout is shrunk to fit the Indian size. So, any hardcover is imported from the US and thus of better quality.
- ninalanyon 7mo agoWhat is the advantage of an ebook reader versus an ordinary Android tablet?
- bombcar 7mo agoThey often have much more "paper like" screens that are not thrashing your eyes with blue light, so they're more comfortable and less "screen like" for reading.