Books vs. eBooks

Film doesn't matter if it's digital, as we aren't realistically going to project it and I'm not even sure that's better. There's no benefit to purchasing a DVD or Blu-Ray and I'm looking forward to the day in 10-15 years when you can pay one subscription fee and stream the vast majority of film ever readily available in high definition.

I guess for storage purposes ebooks are better, but books are beautiful and nicer to hold. They're something which will always be relevant and will be of use to my children.

If I could go back, I would never have bought a film past the VHS era. These days I never purchase videogames because I'm an adult now, so who cares what kids do with them. They'll only be binned eventually anyway. It's not like you get quality boxes like I did when I was a kid that sell for a bit.

This again? Okay fine.

-Books give the reader sensory pleasures (If you care about that shit). The feel of paper, the way it looks, the way it feels to turn the page, even the smell etc, etc.
-Books don't run out of battery
-A third party (ie amazon, kobo, etc) isn't involved when you read a hardcopy book
-It's much easier to mark up a hardcopy
-Looks good on shelves

-Ebooks allow you to have an entire library on hand
-Ebooks save your place for you
-Ebooks have internal dictionaries so it's much easier to look up words on the fly (my favorite function)
-I don't know why, but if you have trouble reading, Ebooks are much easier to read than regular books
-Lightweight
-It's very easy to pirate books

Pretty sure that covers most issues

God, he sounds obnoxious.

Franzen is hokey and I don't think I respect him or his work, but his longform 'journalism' tends to be thought-provoking. i just ignore the prescriptions and think about the questions.

>"If you go to Europe, politicians don't matter. The people making the decisions in Europe are bankers,"

I take back what I said. He is surprisingly redpilled

>-I don't know why, but if you have trouble reading, Ebooks are much easier to read than regular books

I don't know why, but I found Pynchon's V. to be undreadable on paper but i had no trouble on kindle

did you get one of those really old copies with the old ass yellowing paper and weird smells?
that's the copy i have and i hate those books for some reason.

>2017
>Hasn't converted to ebooks
Wew

same

ebook if you are a consumerist brainlet.

book if you have any intelligence left

I actually like yellowed paper (but not too yellow). The bright white paper of brand new books is off-putting to me.

I prefer paper, in the long term, for two main reasons: (1) digital files that are decades old become unusable/unreadable/inaccessible (a paperback that doesn't get soaking wet will outlast any website, e-business, and any of your electronic gadgets, including the screen you are looking at now), and (2) the fact that the internet is not guaranteed to be accessible in exactly the same way for the foreseeable future. Put every film and book into the cloud and it will all be lost if/when the shit comes down. The infrastructure that makes possible the enormous streaming/storage sites such as youtube is not as future-proof as you might think.

I use both.
/thread

If the difference between you enjoying a book and not enjoying it is whether you are reading off a screen or off paper, then the book is the problem.

I've got a lot of thoughts on this.

I got an e-reader for my birthday, and didn't use it for 3 months. Then, I unearthed it, felt bad for mam, and bought a book I knew wasn't going to be amazing on it to save money. How to Solve it, by G. Polya.

Reading on the e-reader felt a little clunky at first, but I got used to it. Then I bought a couple of shorter stories, and found it just as easy.

For about 2 months I've not bought or read a single material book. I've just been engrossed in my e-reader. It's just better in so many ways;
>cheaper books
>arguably easier to read: don't have to hold the book just prop it and tap the screen
>no strain on the eyes, what a myth
>don't have to worry about a lamp or light to read from
>super long battery life (I have a kindle)
>I've been reading not ridiculously more, but certainly more

The only downsides I can see are the inability to highlight and fold interesting pages etc, which I like doing. Also, while I'm not a big show off so this doesn't bother me, I'm sure a lack of a tangible bookshelf with bother some folks.

Anyway, I love it. Highly recommend.

Both.

I'd go full ebook if i could pirate everything (and you even can most stuff), but it can be hard finding a specific edition in ebook format, i don't like reading pdfs that make up a lot of ebooks, and a lot of the time formatting can be fucked up even if you buy a retail ebook.

i wanted to buy a kindle because i had never seen someone in my town having one so
it turned out that i made the best decision in my life and started to recommend it to every single reader i met
if you live in a country where copyright laws ain't that tight, a kindle is the best choice for you
it saves you a lot of money and can read pretty much everywhere (even in brazil people don't take it as a tablet so feel free to use it in public)
physical books are not disposable like ebooks are, you can't just delete them from your bookshelf: you either have to sell them to a used bookstore or exchange it for something else etc
also, reading infinite jest or knausgaard 7-volume my struggle series feels exactly the same in terms of weight
a few years ago i hurt my wrist reading the goldfinch by donna tartt. if i had a kindle back then, that probably wouldn't happen
yes, it's kind of sad not having a fancy edition of the book hanging on your shelf but y'know... we gotta get rid of this materialism :-)

Yeah, agreed, it's like fine print on every book, and the pages light up...the books don't depreciate, don't take up space, whole library with you wherever you go..with the 3G models use your phone as a hotspot and download books on the go (books are less than 100kb). Above all that its just a damn cool piece of tech if you can afford it. If you want to make reading a priority in your life, I would highly recommend an e-reader. Otherwise, if you can't afford one, at the end of the day, a book is a book is a book.

What Is your point? You can get same information from both.

Of all the things he spends on "brainless consumerism" (he's posting from an iphone or apple mac and weaking Nike shoes) an ebook to read on (read, books - as consumerism? can you believe it? -) is just a stretch too far for his pseudo mind.

I actually find it a lot harder to read an ebook than a physical copy.
I do, however, use both.

I think publishers and book stores make more from printed books, and they can control more of the market.

Ebook market is cheaper and less liable to commercialization.

To be honest, I like having books in physical form just so I can display them and I think that some books are better off in physical form, but 9 times out of 10 I prefer using Kindle because it's just easier to use.

For instance, last night I read about 100 pages of the Hobbit while laying under my covers. Had I been using the book, I couldn't have done this comfortable. Book lights mostly are a shit.

Also I prefer not having to spend $100 for certain books when I can get the Kindle one for only a fraction of the cost.

There is one big problem with Kindle I have.

And that is I have too much to read.

I have so many Ebooks that I have problems figuring out which to fucking start reading, and therefore I don't read much, ironically because I have too much to read.

Is both an answer too?

I have the Hobbit sitting next to me in book form and my Kindle is on my bed with the Hobbit on it as well. I bought the Hobbit from a store last week and immediately 'pirated' it on Kindle(I'm not spending fucking money to get something I just bought again.)

I read the physical book outside and in the car and stuff and when it is appropriate, I read the Kindle version. That works good.

>Books don't run out of battery
This is another plus to physical books that I like. I hate having to worry about my fucking battery power, but honestly if I'm reading I just disable almost 90% of background services and that gives me an extra 10 hours of use. It's impossible to have a fully charged Kindle die on you in the middle of reading. It hasn't happened to me yet anyway.

>He doesn't know how to use k2pdfopt to convert pdf formats to 6/10-7/10 tier formatting and then open Calibre and convert that to an epub/mobi and put it on the device that way
I pity you.

Ebook pros:
-portable
-access to entire libraries for free or cheap
-if backlit easy to read in bed
-books delivered to you anywhere

The only thing missing is the feel of the book.

Can we read the hobbit together under your covers?

I do know, but it still fucks up the formatting

One of the most annoying things is notes. If it's good they're hyperlinked, but if not it's a lot worse than physical books as cycling through pages on an ereader is a massive pain

Quality hardback>ereader>hardback>paperback

I haven't made the jump yet to an e-reader. I still read some paper books, but I also read e-books on my computer. Once or twice a year I'll look at e-readers and consider buying one; then I look at the price, and I look at the screen size, and I just can't. I just instantly start thinking of other things I could throw $80 towards, like car repairs or bills.

I've heard e-readers are easier on the eyes than a standard LCD screen, so I've been thinking of getting one anyway because I get eyestrain and headaches at times. But I've seen a lot of claims of products that supposedly reduce eyestrain, but they kinda don't. Can anyone here with eyestrain confirm whether e-readers are less straining than a regular monitor? Maybe I can convince myself it's worth the price...

ebook vanishes into 0s and 1s after use.
book stays.

Ebooks for one time reads.
Physical books for textbooks, books you need to read multiple times to fully grasp and other books where you need to be able to quickly jump to the part you need.

I find ebooks much more annoying to read. You can't open more than one page at a time with an ebook, which means you can't easily flip to the back to read notes or go back a chapter to reread something, etc.

this

Typeface and overall readability of physical books is superior. It's a no contest really.

m8 you can put bookmarks in an ebook.

Doesn't matter. Any ebook is a clunky piece of shit compared to a real book when it comes to anything that isn't just a straight read trough.

See Ebooks aren'tt even superior for reading IMHO.

For just reading they are fine and totally worth it. For anything more than that they are just not practical enough though.

Ink and paper degrade over time. Ebooks are forever new with crystal clear and modifiable font.

lol. i have a fucking first edition book from 1850s and it hasn't degraded for shit mate

Maybe not to your shallow eyes, but science would degrade it.

Ebooks got me interested in reading, and lit inspired me to read classical literature. All in all, it's been an enriching investment.

With ebooks I can search whatever I want. If I hit a word I don't understand I can get the definition on the spot. Also I can get books quick, like now, and hold as many as I want.

Physical books are good because I can flip back and forth easily, and I know where I'm at in the book. For some reason, knowing where exactly I'm at in the book is a thing for me. Kindle (((locations))) just confuse me.

This is how it goes for me:
>Am interested in a book
>Download it as an ebook
>Read it
>If I enjoy it I buy a real copy of it (always hardback if available)
>If not, I delete it.

Much like "tits vs. ass", it's a stupid debate. Get loads of both.

Is a kindle paperwhite worth it?

Do I wait til black friday? Amazon seems to be jewish as fuck and doesnt include a charger

>and doesnt include a charger
they add a usb cable. The port is just a standard mini usb, you can use your phone charger if you want to plug it into a wall, or buy one for about 6 bucks.

Books. I don't have the same experience with an electronic book, and it doesn't satisfy my concerns when it comes to environment. I usually read old ones, so the second-hand market is perfect to suit my tastes. It's cheap, too. Also, hardcover. I cannot keep a paperback in my library.

Ebooks would be great and viable if they weren't so god damn expensive

>buying ebooks

> e-books are the e-cig of books.

Discuss.

> a less expensive alternative to a retarded habit
seems accurate

I have a shitty Nook Color. But I would be reading a real book right now if I didn't have uncorrectable bad vision with a big old blind spot right in the center of my POV that makes it impossible to read even a lot of large print books at any kind of decent speed.

The lit screen and adjustable font make it possible. But an eReader lacks that romantic quality of real book that you hold, and you can smell, and it ages, and you can highlight or ear-mark or set on fire if it pisses you off.

Fuck macular dysrophy.

I'm tired of this thread. Read however the fuck you want. I use both.

You can set your kindle up to show real page count. Just touch where it usually says loc to switch it up.

I prefer both. I find the kindle is great for "beach reading" or other such laid back reading for enjoyment. For study or classics, I prefer physical books. Of course, I am odd. I have no problem reading shitty fanfiction on my phone.

>-Books don't run out of battery
Most ereaders can last a week+ on a charge, not much of a chore to plug the damn thing in once in a while and most places in the world have electricity or you could have a powerbank while traveling.

>-A third party (ie amazon, kobo, etc) isn't involved when you read a hardcopy book
How's this any different than publishers or bookstores. Might as well bitch that books aren't printed off by the author in their kitchen.

I'll admit i have never really tried ebooks, although when i was younger i did read a few shitty fantasy tie in stuff electronically (wouldnt be caught dead buying that stuff)

Have never really used a kindle though, so i cant really say how good it is. All i can say is that i dont really have any inclination to do so.

Apart from portability i cant really see any advantage to it, and unless i am reading a tome. i can generally shove the book i am reading in a bag or pocket no problem.

buying --> physical books
everything else --> downloading ebooks

ebooks have no value

physical books double as decoration

>no one is discussing which ereaders are worth getting

well? what are some Veeky Forums approved ereaders?

Yeah I remember when I read a book on my Kindle and the data was just permanently destroyed after I was doing reading.

As opposed to my hardcover copy that never wears down.

Seriously, what are you even on about? The written content is the same.

One bonus about eBooks; they sometimes have free promotions where you can get ones for free. Case in point; one of mine are free right now, but only for a little while longer. March 30th the promotion ends.

amazon.com/dp/B01M7S2Z0R

I realize that zombie novels, even nitty-gritty ones with heavy focus on realism and survivalism, get a bad rap on Veeky Forums. Still, it's there if you want it, and it's there to shit on if you don't. For whose who might get it and read it, I hope you like it! I've heard good things thus far in regards to my writing. There's also a feminist who kinda/sorta gets raped, so really there's something in there for everyone to enjoy.

I have to say, reading anything on a computer was always a pain. A kindle is something I can sit down anywhere with and just read, as if I had an actual book.

But reading some pdf on a computer or dragging a laptop around is just terrible. I can tell you I started reading a lot more since I got a Kindle. About the eye strain thing, on the Kindle Paperwhite you can lower the brightness to nothing and you have basically no light being emitted, of course you then need some illumination as if it was a real book. You can't do the same on a monitor.

So basically a Kindle can be used the same as a real book, no light emitted off of it. I'm sure that's less straining on your eyes than any other monitor or even tablets in general.

>user doesn't know about Library of America and Pléiade

Got a 20€ rebate for Easter bargain.

Why not? You can just go to a specific location/page/chapter on the book at any given moment. You might even be able to search a specific sentence or word on an e-reader device.

Also some eReaders have built in back lights so you can easily read in the dark. I suppose you can also do this with books, but you have to buy a separate device.

I have only had experience with the Kindle Paperwhite. (one generation behind the current model)

It's been great, really. I have my library on calibre on the PC, send whatever I want to it and I just read. Battery life is insanely long, it has the optional backlight for reading in the dark but if you want you can just use the sunlight and turn it off entirely. The whole "e-ink" idea works great. Any other tablet ends up having short battery life due to having to constantly power on a screen while you read.

The books themselves are easy to get. .mobi works great and .epub does too after a short converstion to mobi or azw3 (the proprietary format for it). The way I do it is like said. I have a massive library with pretty much every book that I could care to read in my lifetime from a torrent I found. Then I just send em to the Kindle and read.

I've only just started using my gf's ereader (Kobo) for pdf readings and the occasional book for uni.

I still prefer physical books - they feel more comfortable in hand and I find it much easier to flick through pages and scribble notes on them; but I'm still glad I've started using the ereader. Way better for reading electronic files on public transport than other options.

tl;dr - utilising both is the best option imo.

I don't like to have many possessions and I spend all my money on overpriced clothing so I pirate all my books on a kindle.

It honestly got me to read much more as accessibility and what to read next were no longer an issue, along with being able to read in bed in the dark every night.

Being able to look words up in the dictionary on demand has really helped build my vocabulary as well, I constantly check definition and enunciation of words I don't have fully down yet.

Plus being able to bring up footnotes on demand and make notes on passages really helps for certain books, ie the jest.

>Typeface and overall readability of physical books is superior. It's a no contest really.

Not really. Einkers won't rival high quality hardbacks, but will beat paperbacks and many hardbacks as well. Fontwise, larger screens are capable of displaying comfortable 30-50px font sizes. That's huge improvement on what you see in print, where 8-18px is norm. Then there is no quality loss because of printing on low quality paper, and with cost effective ink that plagues all of the Penguin editions. One drawback is formatting that is often very poor, but then again, it's that's purely publishers that are to blame. For regular novels, format is flexible enough that it can easily duplicate paper books.

An example of good use:
feedbooks.com/book/588/le-mystère-de-la-chambre-jaune

The problem comes with complicated work, plenty of illustrations, formulas, annotations, and some poetry. There ebooks are still lacking. But it's only the displaying thing that's the problem, everything in print nowdays start it's life as ebook.

one massive torrent of books?

Someone compiled almost 2K books in Kindle format and uploaded it. Of course most of the books are series you probably will have no interest in, but I'm sure all the good stuff is there. It's a good starting point for having every book you could care for. Then anything else you'll have to manually find online I guess.

From my own checking of the books with some plugins for calibre, about 10 of the 2000 were broken and a few more may be weirdly formatted. But really, if you find a problematic book you just replace it with a better one. Small price to pay for having the giant e-library.

I know you just want a link. But I'm not sure I should endorse the piracy of over two thousand books.

>But I'm not sure I should endorse the piracy of over two thousand books.
he says while seeding said torrent

I'm not.

I can check if any book is there and upload it individually, if you want.

nah I can find stuff

now that i'm already here
can someone PLEASE upload an epub of Cixin Liu's 'Death's End'?
my stupid company blocks IRC clients and I can't get into #bookz

>The age old debate.

I have no interest in debating it, but I can chime in and say that I do prefer having physical copies over digital.

Electronic devices fail, need maintenance, are fragile and sometimes involve DRM or other restrictive measures that control what you can do with content you've purchased, and some devices keep tabs on your reading habits so the provider can form an advertising bubble around you. All of these things make my uncomfortable. And it probably goes without saying that I am largely disconnected from the digital world as a result.

Physical books are prone to wear and tear, but I do feel I have a great more deal of (figurative) freedom with them. No one can control when and where I can read them, they don't have expiring licenses, DRM, etc.

>Paperback vs. hardback?
Paperback. More portable. Mini hardbacks are sometimes fine as well.

>New vs. used?
Used. They're going to develop wear and tear either way.

Courtesy of MyAnonamouse.

ufile.io/c184d

A LITERAL GOD
tyvm user have another (You)

>yellowed paper
That's some patrician taste you got there

The only problem I have with my old, yellowed books is that the spine cracks uncomfortably and the paperback covers rip easily.

pirate it and read it and if you like it you can buy the hardcover for your shelf

no point in paying for something you didn't enjoy

What sites do you use?

MaM.

Thanks friend. Trying to access now. I'm searching for a textbook that google books lists at US $474

libgen.io

What is the name?

Neat! Cheers!

the law and policy of air space and outer space: a comparative approach

I hated ebooks until recently. I got the cheapest version of the latest kindle and holy fuck, I have not read so much in the space of a month before.

I would say eBooks now. I especially like that I can sample anything on Amazon. But you have to have a reader that is not "bogged down" by "features". Backlights, waterproofing, high dpi screens are just shitty memes.

Reading by sunlight or a lamp is the way.

>I look at the price, and I look at the screen size

2016 Kindle is perfect size. I think most brands make them around that big. I know nook has a bigger one. I would not want something bigger though. I would also consider something that has a decent sized bezel. They are not Tablet computers. 6-7 inches is the most comfortable.

>Can anyone here with eyestrain confirm whether e-readers are less straining than a regular monitor?

I get headaches and strained eyes with low res screens because a mild farsightedness combined with above average vision (apparently I can resolve details at 6 meters that most can only resolve at 5 or someshit like that). Reading an e-reader for me is exactly like reading a book. It is nice.

Brah, do you even read?