Yes. I buy lots of printed books (and not just for programming). I've probably bought at least a dozen computer books this year alone. I've read several of the

Yes. I buy lots of printed books (and not just for programming). I've probably bought at least a dozen computer books this year alone. I've read several of them cover to cover, substantial portions of several, and used several just for occasional reference. My favorite type of computer books to buy is more theoretical books. Most books to learn a technology are not much better than tutorials online. Reference books don't really beat Google. However, books intended for READING are much better in print. There is no way I would read Code Complete on a computer screen. 800, or however many pages it is, is just way too much not to have paper and ink. Another point for books, you OWN them. Most digital content, you don't really own. If it has any DRM at all of any kind whatsoever, you don't own it. You're leasing it at best. Furthermore, accidental deletion and disk failure are much more likely than your house burning down or flooding to destroy your books. It's even worse if the content lives on someone else's servers. I don't want the availability of my books to be subject to some company's continued existence. If Honda goes out of business, I still have a car. If O'Reilly goes out of business, I should still have my books. There are other ways this comes up. If my internet access goes out, I should still have my books. Another point of books, you can resell or gift them. I bought a computer book recently that I didn't find very useful. I think I got it for like $30 used on Amazon. It's still going for about the same price. So basically I can sell it and have paid nothing for it. Try that with a PDF. Another advantage of books, you can go to a bookstore and browse through them all you want. If you really wanted, you could go to Barnes & Noble, get some coffee, pick up a computer book and read the whole thing there in the store. Sure, some places give previews, but they decide what part of the book the preview comes from and how much you can see. When you're shopping for books, you decide (assuming you're in a store, not on Amazon).