5 ms·
Ask HN: Do you still purchase physical books?
I ask this because I really enjoy reading content from a physical book. I can read ebooks perfectly fine and don't see a problem with them but I feel like I understand more when I have a physical book, which might be a bad thing depending on how you look at it.
- esert 11y agoIf it's cheaper than ebook.
- teisman 11y agoSame. And I'm still surprised to see how often this is the case.
- dozzie 11y agoI like paper books more than e-books, but which one I read depends on the type of content. I prefer digital version for technical stuff, because it's often hard to get hardcopied version (e.g. for documentation) and the content will most probably expire in a year or two. The only technical books I buy in paper are those that don't expire, like "Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation" (Hopcroft, Ullman). On the other hand, I read novels almost exclusively on paper. It all boils down to this: I only have so much spare place to keep paper, so I keep in paper only those that I will want to keep for ten years.
- marvel_boy 11y agoAlways. No ebook can beat a paper book. Browsing and comparing a phisical book is orders of magnitude easier. Anyway, ebooks are good for casual reading.
- abhimskywalker 11y agoYes, but only non-technical ones or those that are meant for recreational reading. Somehow still enjoy a physical book more than one on kindle. For technical books, that I know will need updates soon enough, it's strictly e-books. Though the exception would be some timeless ones like those on algorithms or other similar concepts.
- spike021 11y agoThe way I think about it as a college student is that if it's a book I seriously enjoy and wouldn't mind having for the foreseeable future, then I would rather have a physical copy that I can stick in a shelf, pull out as needed, and just browse whenever I would like.
- robinhoodexe 11y agoYes. I recently bought "A Game Of Thrones" (book one in the series) by George R. R Martin. It's just something different.
- dtwwtd 11y agoI do enjoy reading a physical book more than an ebook but only by a little. It's interesting to me that people here so far seem to prefer technical books to be ebooks due to their short useful shelf life. I've reached the opposite conclusion - that I prefer technical books be paper only and novels/non-technical books may be either. This is because, in my experience, technical books tend to have diagrams or tables that don't render well on the Kindle and similar devices.
- perfTerm 11y agoGenerally. It's so easy to get overloading on the phones and laptops these days that it makes it much easier for me to stay focused on the task at hand when the book is physical. Other reasons I enjoy having physical books is I love sharing them with friends, they make my bookcases look nice, they're much more prescient than e-books, carrying them in a backpack with a computer and notebooks can be a small but nice addition to the moderate exercise that is walking, they don't die on me, paper doesn't bother me like backlit screens especially at night, and finally I don't particularly mind if I spill or damage one (I can bring them poolside, or to the beach, etc). Obviously to each his own but I can only read one book at a time and I usually have a backpack or big coat pocket so carrying them doesn't bother me.
- Rainymood 11y ago>carrying them in a backpack with a computer and notebooks can be a small but nice addition to the moderate exercise that is walking to me, heavy books aren't 'nice additions' but 'more strain to my back and neck' I actively did NOT enjoy slugging around my calculus books or actuarial mathematics books with me ... My kindle has made me read more. It also has reached it's 'break even' point in terms of value bought (10+ books read).
- facepalm 11y agoIirc 10 books is also the break even point with respect to impact on the environment.
- jeena 11y agoYes, I don't care for DRM content.
- facepalm 11y agoI strongly prefer ebooks. Occasionally I'll buy a physical book, for example if it is cheaper (used) than the ebook or I think my spouse might be interested in the book, too. And children's books, I buy all of them in print.
- jgrahamc 11y agoYes, I do. I enjoy the feeling of physical books and I like the fact that I can easily pass them to another human without trying to circumvent DRM or use some service that allows me to 'lend' books. Also, I like to give people books I've read as gifts. One night at SFO flying to the UK I was with a colleague and I had a battered copy of "Antifragile" which I was able to hand to him so he could read it on the flight. No messing with technology; no thinking about what lending restrictions there were; no thinking about whether his technology was compatible with mine. I've also written two books and there's nothing like being able to give signed copies to people.
- Aloha 11y agoI tend to buy a bunch of used books
- CodingGuy 11y agoI prefer a physical book over an ebook every time. I use my kindle only when I have to (travel).
- Jach 11y agoYeah, and I put mostly physical books on my amazon wish list which makes it easy for people to gift me things... After moving recently though I'm looking to digitize some, physical books are annoying to move. I don't have a preference for physical books over digital books, apart from I can't stand "ebooks" that aren't plain PDFs or web pages. I don't like e-ink. I have a collection of PDFs that I read on my tablet, phone, or usually my desktop setup. I also must say I got some mirror glasses last year (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61HShDnJT6L._SL1200_.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61HShDnJT6L._SL1200_.j...) and while ridiculous, they're damn convenient sometimes.
- danieltillett 11y agoThey certainly look ridiculous - how easy on your eyes are they to use for long periods of time?
- Jach 11y agoI wear them over my normal glasses and I'm fine for hours, my only problem is if my head's inclined too much they'll occasionally slide down and pinch my nose a bit. Maybe some padding would solve that. But I don't know how representative I am since I play a lot of video games for hours, too... I'm sure some people will notice strain.
- danieltillett 11y agoThanks for the feedback. I was reading through all the reviews of these and poor fit and alignment seems to be the major problem with these type of glasses. They seemed to be all very cheaply made - maybe someone should create a start-up selling customised versions just like corrective optical glasses.
- Udo_Schmitz 11y agoAbsolutely. The main reason is the abysmal typesetting of e-books, I don’t think there is a solution yet for having beautifully set type in a responsive electronic document. The library on my iPad is getting larger then my physical one though. Lots of scans of books that are not available anymore. And the amount of media we are able to carry around in electronic form still amazes me.
- andersthue 11y agoI have been reading all ebooks for a couple of years but recently switched back to physical books. The main reasons for my switch is: easier to see what I have read or not, the tactile feeling, the thrill of getting the book (when ordering online :), my old eyes sigh has it easier with books.
- plinkplonk 11y agoyes just bought one today (Andrew Gelman's Bayesian Data Analysis). I still buy paper copies of math and classic programming books. I prefer ebooks for fiction
- lucb1e 11y agoI prefer audio books: you can listen while traveling, cleaning, or doing other otherwise dull chores. If there is no audio book, an ebook is the most convenient. I usually upload the text to my server and make it a big font on a dark background so I can read on any device anywhere (since it's only text, even 2G internet suffices). Any laptop, desktop, tablet, smartphone or even a feature phone with GPRS internet works. And I can then link it to friends also if I want to show them something. But of course a real book is a real book. I like holding it as much as anyone, but like a superb meal that takes 3 hours to prepare, it's just too much of a hassle most of the time. I should mention that I don't really read non-fiction. It's not in the question but most people here probably read a lot of technical stuff. I've never really worked that way (following tutorials or reading learning books when not required by school); instead I google what I want to know and learn the ins and outs by experimenting, taking from tutorials only the parts and pieces I need. Not sure how common this is, but it works for me.
- StavrosK 11y agoNot if I can help it. Physical books are too inconvenient for me, plus I move around a lot and it's hard to carry a bunch of books with me. I've gotten into photography recently, and those books are very hard to translate to a digital format, due to the layout. Those are the only ones I buy physical, the experience is good, but it's frustrating enough that I prefer digital.
- notacoward 11y agoNope. Well, yes, but only as gifts for other people. I got a Kindle a few years ago as a way to have a lot of reading material in a small space (and weight) for long trips. It has served that purpose admirably. Even at home, being able to change the type size as my eyes tire in the evening is pretty nice. I can read any time and any place on my phone, including times and places where I probably wouldn't have bought a book (e.g. at lunch alone), and my reading progress is even synced with the Kindle back home. The reading experience itself doesn't seem much better or worse, but the various convenience factors add up.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- codeN 11y agoAnother reason is in the Indian sub continent many books (assuming you don't purchase illegally) the "Indian Sub-continent" edition physical copy is cheaper since Kindle books are almost always on the global price (though often cheaper than global print editions). This is especially true for many technical books.
- Maro 11y agoYes. I buy books with formulas, code (like physics, engineering, programming) in physical form, because the Kindle edition tends to look awful. I only buy the Kindle edition of books that are purely text and/or throwaway (= I won't open it ever again), typically management, self-help books. Also, I buy physical versions of fun books that I read before going to sleep, because I don't want anything digital (= capable of displaying notifications) in my hand when I'm preparing to go to sleep.
- tomjen3 11y agoI don't think I understand more when I read a physical book, but unfortunately not all books are available on the Kindle. Plus I can't lent anyone my non-physical books. That said if I could I would go 100% digital because the books are both cheaper and you can carry an entire library with you.
- scandox 11y agoI do. Also:http://m.mic.com/articles/99408/science-has-great-news-for-people-who-read-actual-books http://m.mic.com/articles/99408/science-has-great-news-for-p...
- rdl 11y agoI buy books only in the case I can't get an e-book version (first choice: kindle. second choice: piracy. third choice: other book markets). I'd probably cut them all apart and digitize them (there's a 100 books for $100 scanning deal).
- reitanqild 11y agoApart from the "second choice: piracy" which is very interesting, in a good way I think, can you share how exactly you scan and digitize your books?
- rdl 11y agohttp://1dollarscan.com/ http://1dollarscan.com/
- mafribe 11y agoI stopped buying paper books a few years ago. To this day, I much prefer the look, feel and smell of printed paper, but storing books became a major headache for me, as I had so many, tended to live in small dwellibng, and was moving quite frequently. Ebooks solve this problem completely. Moreover I mostly read books to do something with their content, to transform it, to think about it. Searching paper books, even when they have a good index (a rare occurence), is incomparably slower than 'grepping' through my electronic texts. The ability easily to cut-and-paste is also helpful. As others have pointed out, Ebooks, at least on the devices I use to consume them, have one disadvantage: the infinite amount of discraction that internet connectivity brings. But there are work-arounds. For these reasons, I won't be going back to paper.
- crdb 11y agoAs little as I can get away with. I read too much (probably around 100 books/year) to be able to accumulate the physical volume and electronic formats are just much more convenient. Usually, it's long tail (specialist), older books. Sometimes, surprising ones: Lee Kuan Yew's arguably most famous book, "From Third World to First" is only available in paperback or hardback (some of his later writings are available for Kindle).
- th0br0 11y agoPaper books for academic / scienctific ones, ebooks for fiction.
- spoiler 11y agoI do the exact opposite actually! I prefer to read a good story in my bed, covered with blankets, and enjoy the paper under my fingers. However, when I read something scientific, or work related, I prefer eBooks; I'll be at my computer anyway, and this allows me to research the subject I'm reading about in more depth.
- DanBC 11y agoI buy physical childrens books. I buy big coffee table non fiction physical books. Have you tested your learning from physical vs ebooks?
- ori_b 11y agoYes, I prefer physical books.
- adrianhoward 11y agoYes. But a lot fewer than I used to. Mostly because of space issues (I have about 40 years worth of books hanging around. Last time I moved I bottomed out the suspension of the moving van with the weight ;-). These days I tend to get physical books when: * They're significantly better "things". I have some lovely books that are lovely objects in of themselves. Well typeset, bound well, quality paper, folios, etc. For example my hardcover of "The Timeless Way Of Building" is a beautiful object — as well as a wonderful book. I like having beautiful objects around me. * When the format doesn't work as an e-book. For example Stephen Cole's "The Geometry of Type" would be completely useless to me as an ebook. As would most of my books on photography art and architecture. They're not just lumps of text that can be trivially reflowed. This is something that might change if we get some really high-quality A3 portable ebook reader type things in the future. * When I can't get them as an ebook. There is still a stupid about of immensely useful content out there that you cannot get in ebook format. For example I'm currently finishing up a re-read of Victor Papanek's "Design for the Real World". Which you cannot get as an ebook. That said — my default for fiction/reference purchases tends to be ebooks now. With occasional upgrades to paper books if they're something I really liked and I can get a "nice" physical edition.
- erbdex 11y agoYes, absolutely. Roughly two every month. =)
- voltagex_ 11y agoeBooks / Safari Books Online all the way, except in cases of particularly silly DRM or absurd prices (looking at you, Pearson) AbeBooks is now my go to for physical books.
- self 11y agoI live in Pakistan, which is woefully underserved by the big ebook providers (no Amazon Kindle editions, no Google Play Books, and iBooks has mainly public domain ebooks only). I tend to buy technical ebooks from O'Reilly and The Pragmatic Programmers, and such. (I do have another option for technical books -- the Asian editions. They're cheap, but the coverage is spotty: I bought the C Tiger book a couple of years ago, but all because I couldn't find the ML one.) There are no libraries I can visit in this city. There's a nice readers club in Karachi (sort of like Netflix for DVDs, except it's for books), but I don't live in Karachi. So, I hoard non-technical books. There are a few good bookstores where I live, and I tend to buy a lot faster than I read -- all because I'm afraid the next time I visit the store I won't find a copy of what I want. I've raided a lot of used bookstores, and bought books I'd never have imagined finding again, like the old CYOA series. Shipping from Amazon is expensive -- $6.99 per shipment + $6.99 per book. Amazon.co.uk is slightly cheaper for larger shipments: £5.49 per shipment + £2.99 per book. Amazon.in, right next door to me, doesn't ship internationally. Powell's is about the same as Amazon. I funded the Singularity & Co Kickstarter earlier this year, and that gives me access to a bunch of older stuff, as ebooks. I haven't ordered from baenebooks.com yet; their catalog doesn't have a lot of Tor books I want.
- Pyrodogg 11y agoAs someone who currently has his physical books stored away in a locker a third of a world away, I'm souring to my former preference for physical books. It's definitely not perfect but I wish more books went the DVD model where if you buy the physical disk version, you can also get a digital license. Without really having to buy both separately. I'd love to have to have access to the contents of my books regardless where they are, while still enjoying them physically when I can. Unfortunately the current electronic versions are buried in DRM and sold merely as limited licenses to the content.
- rhizome31 11y agoFWIW, Manning follows that model: you can buy the physical book from anywhere and it contains a coupon that you can use to get the ebook from their site. That's the only tech editor I know of that does this. No Starch also offers free ebook with any print book bought from their site, but the shipping cost to where I live is too high.
- rhizome31 11y agoYes. In fact, strictly speaking, we can only purchase physical books. We cannot really own ebooks. Even if an ebook doesn't have DRM it's usually watermarked with my name and the editor threatens to sue me if I lend it, loose it or if it gets stolen. We can purchase physical books but in a sense we can only rent ebooks, even if we pay only once for a lifetime lease.
- michael_nielsen 11y agoI love my Kindle, and would like to switch completely, but there are two problems: (1) My physical bookshelves function as a kind of spatial/visual memory for me, with different ideas associated to different locations on the shelves. Switching to Kindle only seems like it would destroy much of that memory. (2) When having friends around, the shelves are a great way of starting conversation, and discovering new shared interests. This is possible also with things like Goodreads, but the connections made lose some intimacy. Does anyone have any ways of addressing these problems?
- econone 11y agoYes. Find a service that exports your kindle library and prints them on a large bookshelf sized poster.
- aburan28 11y agoI used to never buy physical because I could always find them online for free but I am slowing starting to buy books again because reading on a computer a book like "Programming Pearl's" just does not work out for me
- roowilliams 11y agoI http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-scre... As much as I'd love all media to become digital, physical books map what you are reading to physical stimuli which seems to help anchor the communication into your brain.
- Supersaiyan_IV 11y agoFor my own pleasure: Paper books. For faculty and reference: Easily searchable digital media.
- bigbento 11y agoYes. I find it a pretty practical format; for what I read it's cheap, light, and reliable. Not to mention that there's a lot of quality content available only in paper books.
- 6d0debc071 11y agoYes. I don't like the idea of someone being able to take[1] a book from me that I've bought, I don't like the idea of someone being able to track[2] what I'm reading, I don't like the idea of only being able to read it on one device or one subsection of devices through their service. I have rather dark pictures of a world where inconvenient knowledge is deleted, and the agencies involved know who's had a copy and if they've read it. Some of these are fixable by stripping the DRM out of the things. But I don't see why I'd give my money to support people doing things I don't like that much for the privilege of trying to undo what they've done. If I bought an ebook and the file was delivered in a reasonable plain-text format, and was mine in the same sense that a book was... If I was ensured that the device wasn't a massive backdoor... yeah, I'd probably buy myself an ereader and consume most of my books that way. But, as things are at the moment? I wouldn't use the things even if I was paid to. I view it as little different to inviting someone with a camera and an incinerator to sit beside me as a I read. ---- 1. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18ama... 2. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/12/2010-e-book-buyers-guide-e-book-privacy https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/12/2010-e-book-buyers-gui...
- chestnut-tree 11y agoYes, I still buy book physical books. Consider that physical books come in so many shapes and sizes, while e-readers mostly come in just one size. For this reason, I feel an e-reader is mostly only suitable for paperback-sized books. They can't accomodate the huge variety of book sizes or the variety of layouts (e.g. something as simple as a double-page spread). Perhaps things might change if we get larger, colour e-readers. I don't find reading books on a tablet comfortable for long periods.
- voltagex_ 11y agoSide note: The Art of Electronics and Computer systems : a programmer's perspective either had no eBook edition or were eye wateringly expensive. I think my limit for eBook prices would be 50% of the physical copy, at most.
- scrrr 11y agoYes, of course. Rule of thumb: What's been around a long time, will stay around for a long time. The longer something is used, the longer it will take for it to be displaced. Paper-books been round for thousands of years. ;) Besides, as good as digital reader devices are, they have serious drawbacks. For example quick browsing, retarded DRM restrictions (why can't I give my book to someone else, ffs?!), and they still aren't as nice on the eyes as paper books. Not to mention that they need electricity and each book I read is another data-point in my profile on some nebulous company's (or gov-agency's) server. That said, they have advantages when it comes to search. But often we kind of memorise the "shape" of the text, so this advantage isn't as great. (Just like source-code editors sometimes show a miniature version of the text for quicker navigation.) And they also weigh less. But they don't look as good on the shelves..
- micheljansen 11y agoI used to only buy physical books, until I moved to London, where space is scarce and I couldn't afford to keep hundreds of books around. Although I still buy some physical books, I have switched to ebooks for all of my "disposable" reading. If I expect to read a book only once and won't use it for reference later, I'll get an ebook. After a few months with a Kindle, I did notice an interesting change in my own behaviour. Because I always have the kindle with me, I can read any book anywhere and any time, without having to plan ahead. As a result, I have started reading books at times where I would otherwise have browsed HN or blogs. Perhaps books are a bit like cameras that way: the best one is the one you have with you.
- satyajeet23 11y agoYes, I still prefer paper book than e-books, though I own a kindle, but still I like to read a real book, old scool way. I just bought the latest 'Becoming Steve Jobs' biography & I love it!
- harunurhan 11y agoI don't always read book but when I do, I always prefer e-book. Because It's low cost, eco-friendly, easy to take notes and search them, easy to carry etc.
- wavelander 11y agoI just bought "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius. Apart from the debate raging on about grabbing/absorbing more from a physical book than an ebook, I feel that I'm simply more attached to the physical aspect of the reading experience. I've read ebooks when I've been unable to find the hard copies, but I almost always revert to the hard copies.
- sriram_malhar 11y agoOh yes. The fonts, layout, smell, texture, random access, color, heft, everything!
- fourier 11y agoYes I do. The reason is moral/aesthetical: to have books on my bookshelfs and organize them makes them always visible in my flat and allows me to easy glimpse over them and have an idea of what I did, what I planned and what I'll deferred. From functional point of view eBooks are more convenient, so if I got a chance I buy both ebook and paper versions, or if I download the eBook for free somewhere I make sure if the book is good to buy the paper version later.
- naeemnur 11y agoyes
- GlobalChange 11y agoI don't like paper. I have never liked it. Worse of all, I cannot never read at night, not paper. Never could, don't know why, eyes get red, tired, can't focus. Digital format, yes! When the story is good I almost go until dawn reading. With paper, I would read a couple of books a year. With digital, I've been able to read dozens of books a year. I cannot read paper anymore. I'm buying the digital versions of the few ones I have in paper I haven't read yet. Besides, nothing like cleaning my living room, all books, music and movies on a device that fits in my pocket! Equally important is the highlight (yeah, can be done on paper too) and search functionality. Once I basically had to read the book again looking for a passage. I knew the contents of the passage, but I did not knew where in the book it was. Some categories, like photography, design, art, etc. still don't go well in digital format, though. DRM sucks. Not the paying part, but just how it makes our lives miserable. Also, don't understand when digital copies cost more than hard-copies (especially for text-only books).
- GlobalChange 11y ago"To date, many engineers, designers and user-interface experts have worked hard to make reading on an e-reader or tablet as close to reading on paper as possible." The approach is wrong. Most of us have not left the physical objects behind. It's still too soon. It's like wanting to use an iPad with keyboards, it's "wrong". I don't use page turning, or page by page, taping left or right. I use scroll. And despite what I read, to me it's the best. I don't have to move my eye or my head. It's the text that moves. I also chose the font (Verdana or similar whenever possible, I don't like serif fonts). Because of the problem with the lights coming from the device, I use the sepia mode (white on black is also not good). That's is also one of the reasons I don't like the bigger iPad. The iPad mini is the ideal size, as the kindle, I suppose. I don't like to have or carry many things, so now I only use an iPhone plus.
- akulbe 11y agoFor technical and business books, absolutely not. They often go out of date (especially in the case of technical books) by the time they get to print. I stick with digital versions in these categories, consistently. If it is a "timeless" book, like one of the Great Books, then maybe.
- partisan 11y agoI prefer a physical book and haven't used my kindle in some years now. I used the kindle when at the gym on an elliptical and even then, it wasn't nearly convenient enough yet. That said, as I find myself reading more lately and lugging some stuff with me to work, the kindle might be a good way to get rid of some of the burden.
- rajeshmr 11y agoFor Thought provoking books/philosophy books etc I prefer physical books. For Technical books I prefer digital books since I would love to try out examples almost immediately as they appear in the book.
- GlobalChange 11y agoDespite what I have said, I have actually been acquiring some "old" books (pre-Internet era, i.e., 1990 or older), even paying more on delivery fee than the book itself. lest to avoid history being rewritten, as someone, scarily, but truly, mentioned in one of the comments.
- jedi_master 11y agoTheres 2 things that are always on my desk. A wooden buddha and Code Complete 2 (the bible).