Serious question...

Serious question, is the only reason for purchsing physical books these days over an ebook is to have a nice bookshelf (vanity)?

yes

I have the money to spend on it and prefer paper aesthetically. Enjoyment is all the reason you need.

I also routinely swap books with friends, which isn't as easy with normal ebooks.

No, for retention.

Paper books also have a different feel to them, but it's usually not worth the extra money. So mostly yes, it's vanity.

No. Most books will never be made into ebooks, so if you want to read something like a Flight to Lucifer, you have to look for an actual copy.
That and the formatting on a lot of ebooks is actually unreadable.

No, it's so you have a BOOK to read, a real codex of paper and cloth, which you can comfortably lie in bed with within the bonds marriage as God intended.

Pros:
Books are very cheap comparatively
Lightweight
Takes us barely any space
Holds thousands of books, more than you will ever need/read
Adjustable brightness that doesnt strain eyes
Adjustahle font size

Cons
Battery needs recharging every now and then

*with natural light falling on the pages

When the war is over and we're all living in third world squalor with no electricity or running water, those of us who have books will still have books. Those of us have an e-reader will have illiterate kids.

Appeal to nature fallacy

just commit suicide

Sometimes when I go into a used bookstore I find something interesting that I wouldn't have thought of searching for

>Most books will never be made into ebooks
It's good that you provided some compelling arguments and didn't just pull a statement out of your ass.

>buying ebooks
TOP KEK

Library Genesis exists you luddite.

Are you poor?

I would be if I wasted money.

I like the fact that you can collect them, and the dopamine rush of ordering on amazon, getting them in the mail is cool.

My ipad locked me out so i started buying real books. Problem is ive been so used to screens that real books are harder now.

Also, i like the romantic idea of handing someone a "life changing" book. Tell someone "you sould read xxx" and they'll nod and never do it.

Another reason: I'd get pissed off when i couldn't find free PDF versions of books i wanted to read (this is mostly for modern stuff). Paying for a digital book seems so lame. When i use an Ereader i better be getting them for free, otherwise, mostly every book on earth is a penny on amazon and only 4 bucks for shipping, then you have it for collection, in case of apocalypse, etc.

I buy books to virtue signal with them. I have two hundred and thirty five copies of Infinite Jest strategically placed throughout my manse. Bitches love it.

>he doesn't know the difference between not wasting and obsessing over every cent
One is being smart with money the other is poorfag mentality.

So basically, vanity

I mean, kind of. But certain books lend better to physical copies. Poetry for instance, is much better in paperback. Easier to just sift through and browse poems etc. The same argument could also be made for short story collections and maybe even novels with lots of notes.

true but stupid

What you have is consumerist mentality. I'm not giving some jew publishers money so I can read a book written by a guy who died 100 years ago, fuck off.

Enjoy your outdated translations

mm yes that dopamine rush

>jew

fuck off /pol/

reading on a screen gives me eye strain and a book feels more comfortable in my hands than something so thin and fragile as a kindle

>dopamine rush of ordering on amazon, getting them in the mail is cool.

I have to agree with this. I read on my Kobo a lot but sometimes order physical copies of books if the price is right, or I can't find a good epub.

Waiting for that delivery, trying to finish up your other books as you wait for your new ones, is a great feeling.

>giving some jew publishers money so I can read a book written by a guy who died 100 years ago
>all the old classics are available for free on nearly every ebook store

not dopamine

If you think there is something wrong with jews controlling the world go back to /pol/. It is a fact that they control the world and a fact that it is in our best interests.

My retention when reading on a handheld electronic device is practically nonexistent.

no.

it's to support a noble tradition.

If I do I try to get it in a quality long lasting version in a good binding.

It's hypocritical of me as I'm using similar technology to post but the production of a e-reader is more costly then the equivalent amount of normal books. It's produced by a Chinese or third world worker for cents on a dollar, the technology for it most likely has a horror story of an origin and it's designed to become obsolete.

>he prefers books printed on the machinery produced by a Chinese or third world worker for cents on a dollar, the technology for it most likely has a horror story of an origin and it's designed to become obsolete

machines made for manufacturing are designed to be obsolete?

I make my books out of parchment.

Made from jew skin.

Handheld devices are designed to be obsolete?

Most books published before the 21st century that weren't canonized by academia do not exist in eBook format

Yeah and they're all shit. Fucking hipster.

yes lol

Any given "new" technology in iPhones, for example, has been available to Apple for years before they release it. They do this so people keep buying new phones because of all the new features, updates, and so on.

>books published before the 21st century
>reading vintage books
What kind of poorfag can't afford new books full of latest literary tech?

Not an argument.

A lot of people have that issue with LED/LCD screens since they hurt your eyes. Most e-readers use electronic ink screens which is completely opaque and looks a lot like actual paper. You can take them outside on a sunny day and they'll still be perfectly readable.

Got a Kobo H2O a while ago and it's honestly one of the best purchases I've ever made. I can just download books off the internet, put them into the device with calibre and read them with the same comfort I'd have with a physical copy

I have phones, PDAs and readers going back ~15 years. Most are still working like new. The whole "made to become obsolete" meme comes from irresponsible teenagers who don't know how to care for things and need to blame someone else. Meanwhile I can still browse freshest WAP-pages on my Siemens and read books on a Palm and both 1.Gen iPhone and GNex are working just fine.

Looking at screens too long really strain my eyes. Plus I like seeing the progression Ive made thru a book rather than a blip that says pg120 or 400.

why don't you suck stefan molyneax's cock fagboi

L O L

Also, the battery lasts fucking FOREVER since the e-ink display uses very little energy. As long as you keep the backlight off when it's not needed and don't read literally all day, a full charge should last around a week or longer.

And did you buy new ones despite the older versions still working?

Can help you get laid if your books are in your room

my bookshelf is a shrine to every writer who has contributed to my perspective on life. I give away the books I don't care for.

Not an argument.

I bought new ones, because they had more functions/capabilities, not because the old ones became dysfunctional.

>buy from smaller publishing house

>they don't have online format

fuck you op. I hate you.

Lol what a pseud comment

Didn't say they become dysfunctional, I said they become obsolete, floppy disks still function but are obsolete, also are you regularly use your old tech?

no, it's sincerity

There's a difference between obsolescence and planned obsolescence ("designed to be obsolete"). First one happens naturally, the other one is manufacturer's doing. People like to talk of latter in relation to personal electronic devices, even though they're mostly subject to former. No I don't use old tech regularly.

This. The biggest reason to own paper books is as a hedge against technological failure.

Of course, this is a fully general argument for becoming a prepper, so if you don't have at least a year's worth of food, water, fuel, and ammo stocked up, you don't get to use this argument.

>Looking at screens too long really strain my eyes
E-ink looks exactly the same as regular paper. Give it a try.

This thread depresses the fuck out of me. I'm a college student and "having a nice bookshelf" is the worst part of owning physical books; even if I spend a lot of money on buying books and time on reading them, it's not at all fucking practical when I think about moving across the country or world for a job.

I've been reading a book from Gutenberg on my Kindle Fire and it's unsatisfying as hell on an electronic screen. I don't feel like I'm reading a book, probably because most of what I've read on a screen up to this point has been shitposts and news.

It's a bummer because some books are a bitch to buy or carry around (See: The Gulag Archipelago), but I'd take toting a few pounds of books on vacation over losing out on the best reading experience I could have.

I find that I'm more likely to finish a book if I actually have a physical copy of it.

The answer to this question is subjective, depending on the person and their personal view. The answer to your question is, no. Vanity is not the only reason why people buy physical copies over digital.

People buy physical copies for their own reason. It's better to ask the question, Which do YOU prefer, physical or digital, and why?

This is the question you should ask, because subjective questions will never have a yes or no answer.

Honestly, lit, I expected better from you.

I enjoy taking notes in my books. Helps with retention. Can't do that with ebooks.

No it is not

Vanity

There are e-readers with more paper-like screens, though. The other Kindle models, which are more explicitly e-readers, or the Kobo models would not strain your eyes as much.

That being said, I prefer paper copies because I like to annotate as I read and that's a hell of a lot harder to do via Kindle. Also, it's easier to keep up with discussion in class with physical editions.

I also have always appreciate the aesthetics of books, so.

>annotating

Because your undergrad insights are really important lmao

Fear of the electronic media changing keeps me buying books. Those of us who invested in VHS video tapes ended up binning them a decade later when everything switched to CDs. There is a good chance that books will still be on shelves a few centuries from now, while e-readers will be filling up landfill sites. Books also don't need batteries, dont break when you drop them and can be loaned to friends without you being accused of piracy. Also, if a book is lost/stolen, you are only a few quid down.

Yes you can.

Why do you people always use this argument to condemn books?

Buying books is not "vanity" but more around spiritual fulfillment. You folks always scream that ebooks are the future for it is very effective and cheap. But when we use the same argument into making you eat nothing but bland potatoes and ramen, we all know that you will all get sick

Always remember that you are a human not a robot. Mental, emotional, and spiritual health are vital in keeping yourself sane and happy. A life of greys will always wish for death.

Real books to a reader yeilds the same joys as eating a home-cooked meal
Ebooks are for fags who eat canned sardines

So biased

Cons:
Can break after a single drop
Can break with a few drops of water
Very likely to be stolen
No one can see what you are reading
Cannot lend it to a friend without losing everything
Has a lifespan of less than 10 years

You can buy protective cases so it won't break. they cost less than 100 so it doesn't matter if they would only last a year, still chraper than buying books.
How exactly are they going to be stolen? If you take care of your things they won't
You can tell your friends which books to download

>Can break after a single drop
Dunno about other e-readers, but mine is an 8 ounce chunk of plastic and pretty much indestructable. In the last 5 years I've lugged it around all over the world and didn't treat it with much care and it's still working perfectly. If I read a single book as much as my kindle it would likely be in tatters.

>potatoes and ramen
>he can't even make a correct analogy
>he posts anime girls
What a surprise.

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Paper feels better.

The smell, touch, the experience of reading a book is lost on an e-reader. Of course, an e-reader is more efficient, but something is always lost in the process of making something more efficient. A book is a physical object that encases the content within a defined space ; things like the cover also help doing this. Putting the content into text doesn't change what's written inside, naturally, but it modifies the link between the author and the text in the sense that it feels like he has less ownership of it. In a way, e-readers are un-canonifying literature, and I can't think of a worse moment for this to happen. Properly didn't formulate my idea too well, but I think Gunther Anders said something similar, althought not related to books exactly.


(Also you can't post in stack threads and you have no bookshelf to show off)

(Literally pleb tier)

I can't enjoy reading on electronics is why I buy physical copies over ebooks.

Why I buy books over renting from a library is more of a personal problem. I'll work on it.

So I can show off my taste in public desu

>You can tell your friends which books to download
He means that you dont have access to your entire digital library when somebody is borrowing your e-reader, which may or may not be true.

I don't own physical music anymore. I don't own physical movies. When I played games they were all digital copies.

If it wasn't for books my house would be a soulless cube. Like Kevin's room in 'We need to talk about Kevin'.

Personally my reading speed is slow as hell on ebooks, and having the internet just seconds away so I can watch YouTube or go on Veeky Forums doesn't help either. Plus I like going through and underlining and tabbing especially for school books which is something that's significantly harder to keep track of on an ebook. Lastly, I like having a physical reminder of all that I need to read. My kindle library is full of books but I've only read a couple because they don't take up any physical space so there is no sense of urgency to read them.

>paper books are water proof
>paper books are life proof
>implying I give a fuck if people can see what I'm reading
>implying I have friends

Hah yeah ok kid.

You can annotate for your own personal gain though. If I didn't track nearly every symbol in As I Lay Dying I would have never understood the importance of Christmas, bananas, or linked Jewel to the philosophy of Nietzsche. Have all those things been written about by other people? Yes. But I was able to learn for myself because of extensive annotations. It's a part of the reading experience that is severely restricted when reading an ebook.

/thread

I always get tired and fall asleep when I read ebooks, so I cant read anything other than physical books.

...

I don't think anybody has mentioned in this thread, yet, which is weird, but--

staring at an electronic lit screen for hours on end is going to fuck your eyesight. that reason alone is enough to avoid it

I can't into ebooks, I just can't.

>over an ebook
so you must buy ebook reader anyway, right?

Yes. I was one of the physical book memelords but I was given a Kindle Paperwhite for christmas and it's all I read now. So much more convienient and comfortable. I still buy books for the shelf so dumb women think I'm intelligent though.

You're overthinking this. You need no more explanation than "I like my paper books."

I like both. Digital for when I travel. But I really like taking notes in physical books as I read.

Kindle and most other "ink" E reader screens are completely different from modern phone/tablet screens and have little to no negative effect on your eyes in comparison. Especially if you don't use the backlight which is the equivalent to a book light.

you're cold-minded. you've flown off into the frosty peaks of pure form and you've forgotten that matter is the ground of being.

i wouldn't get rid of my borzoi edition of wallace stephens for anything. they print one poem per page.

>women think you're intelligent

dam son, how many books did you buy?

i just cant physically read on a pc or tablet

>he thinks he's gonna be able to charge his e-reader after the nukes have fallen
pffff, I'll be in my basement with my shelves lined with real books