Why do physical books still even exist?

Why do physical books still even exist?
Phones and ereaders completely replaced them already.

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Because it feels better to read on a physical book you fucking retard

Is there anything better than the cover of a book being a painting that wasn't made for the novel but way before?

I think many many many people agree that physical > electronic. The eventual threat we face is people just not reading books anymore for pleasure. I'm 18, and do people my age read? Look, I socialise with many Oxbridge applicants and even among them reading as a hobby is scanty. What does that say about our future generations? Sorry for memeing and being a 'wow so deep yung pepul dont reed anymuh' but it's accurate, perhaps. I do not know I am basing this all on anecdotal evidence and I have no statistics to back up my claims!

You write like a retard.

People couldn't even read all that well in the past. The actual number of literate citizens has ballooned, and so has the number of well-read ones.

E-readers are still shitty. The main problem is people being able to download any book easily for free. Piracy is much more of a threat to books than it is to music or movies.

book
>heavy
>no searching
>no automatic bookmarking
>no lighting
>fragile

phone
>light
>can store thousands of books
>convenient
>screens are already good and high-resolution enough to not strain your eyes

How do books feel better?

you can forget that you have a pdf or an epub. you won't forget to read a book sitting on your coffee table
>or on the coffee table of some qt
>or in the office of some prof you need to schmooze with
>ywn have a qt prof who provocatively leaves a copy of being & time on display, as if you wouldn't notice this
>is that a weltgeschichte in your pocket or are you just happy to see me, onto-ontologically speaking ofc
>*dasein intensifies*
>you're drooling on my floor
>tfw

also having a physical copy of the Big Book of Answers on hand is more useful when indoctrinating an army/cult, leaflets &c. equipping a peasant mob w/e-readers is expensive

I find it really good to read physical books even though most of my reading is done on a screen. It hurts my eyes less than the screen for one, and it actually promotes more posture by me having to change position and actually rest all the time (against common sense, the ease of reading with a kindle or such increases laziness of posture). That said I have nothing against ereaders but they are not going to supplant books for the next couple years for me.

Also consider that books are still the leaders of preserving information storage. You might think HDs are very good by now but most commercial stuff lasts for hundreds of years on end, while a fine print, hard cover which is taken good care of, can last up to thousands of years. Of course, we can outdo that with biologically inspired electronics, but those are still on testing phase and not going to hit the market that soon either.

Lastly, it is tremendously difficult to break the barrier of taking everything that was written before (and we still have copies of) from print to digital media. Google was doing this with Scholar but unfortunately were hit with a lawsuit and the project has stopped without hopes of ever going back up. They can't even release what they already have for free. So this is another staple ereaders (in spite of the apparent success) haven't fully crossed yet, which is that of granting a (permanently backed up) copy of everything we have written before. These are some of the reasons I believe physical books will remain in existence for a long while still. On the other hand I don't think "the extinction of books" is gonna be any huge event of sorts, I think we'll just slowly migrate to digital seamlessly just like with music.

Retard? I think you mean ReMard?

I had eBooks until I inherited my grandfathers collection of old books. The margins are full of his thoughts, and now some of them contains mine as well. Like a conversation that goes on trough the generations.

>these things have been replaced already
>but people still frequently choose to use the thing that was supposedly replaced
Didn't really think that one through, huh?

Same reason vinyl and fountain pens still exist: Plebs desperately to cultivate identity through consumerism.

>why do physical books exist
...to bear text.
>phones and ereaders completely replaced them already
This is not given in experience.

boring fucking thread, books are a good medium

Ebooks are still weak for textbooks. Diagrams and charts are too clunky.

Ebooks are for poorfags with tiny homes and no shelf space. Hardcopy master race.

although ereaders have way more benefits (the biggest being: "free" books, can read in the dark, can take hundreds of books anywhere), I just can't get used to them, and boy I tried. there is just a very romantic feeling about owning a copy of a book you like, and it stares at you on the table, asking you to read it. and when you read it, its very nice to watch the bookmark slowly going down each day in a big tome. the wearing of time is nice too, its like a bit of yourself is marked on the book

I think for me, I get some psychological pleasure out of feeling the paper and turning the pages. I guess it feels more like I'm interacting with a book more as a piece of art than a source of information, kind of like why I would go to see a movie in a theater or see live music.

Hard copies are much better for actually studying with. If all you're doing is reading a book once or twice cover to cover then sure I guess ebooks are fine, but they're honestly awful otherwise.

Why Physical books over digital?
>Less strain on the eyes
>Greater sense of ownership when holding a physical object
>People can see what you are reading, which makes it a potential conversation starter
>Can't be as easily destroyed like digital media
>Display on your bookshelf to show status, or your interests
>You can annotate it however you like if desired

>hey guys come check out my PDF library on my hard-drive, I have all the classics

>I don't understand what a book is

>heavy
As someone that regularly lifts, this sounds absurd. I find it unfortunate that you cant hold a 1-2lb book, user. I don't even find my leatherbound editions to have any weight...jesus user.

>cant search
Imagine being so autistic that you cant remember where important passages are in a book after reading.

Physical books just feel far better to read. And all of the "cons" that exist between the two dont matter unless you have autism.

>book
>fragile
If I drop a phone and a book on to the pavement, which do you think would come off worse

>Plebs desperately to cultivate identity through consumerism
that's exactly what e-readers are for

If i hold a flame under my book and my phone for .1 second which do u think will burst into flames??

None, but it could damage you electronics so the device doesn't work anymore and the book would only be slightly burned.

Wrong retard
Books are made from trees which are highly flammable.

See: smokey the bear

>turn the page particularly hard
>it rips like paper

Anybody can drop something by accident. Only a retard would light any of his worldly possessions on fire.

>open the cover first time
>it stays folded up forever and the spine splits in half
I'd rather read the label on an spaghetti-o's can

t. idiot shit poster

If i drop my burning book into a puddle I think it's more fucked than putting it in a bag of rice will be able to fix. The ink will smear and everything

ya gotta get phenomenological

It feels cozy to read a physical book, and I need all the cozy I can get.

Control your tard strength

>annotating books
How pleb do you have to be to write on a book?

A few pounds can get heavy if carry it all day.

>I think we'll just slowly migrate to digital seamlessly just like with music.
Look at what is happening with music now though. The vinyl resurgence is a real thing.

No it isn't, it's just a hipster meme purely for "collection" purposes and it makes no technical sense since the quality of the vinyl audio is identical to digital since they both come from the same digital master (minus the vinyl imperfections), it doesn't make the sound "warmer" or anything, that depends entirely on the speakers.
Even books have a lot more purpose since they completely change the reading experience unlike vinyl.

>it's just a hipster meme
Get with the times. Sony is going to start pressing vinyl again.
washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/06/30/vinyl-records-are-so-popular-that-sony-plans-to-make-them-again/
Plus it isn't all about collecting. There are albums pressed to vinyl that never got a digital or cd release as it is with books that never got a digital release. These should just be forgotten because it's old technology?
What makes books have a different experience that a vinyl record doesn't have?

>There are albums pressed to vinyl that never got a digital or cd release as it is with books that never got a digital release. These should just be forgotten because it's old technology?
All vinyl albums worth remembering were recorded into digital already.
The vinyl fad has no technical reason to exist, it might last a good while but pointless, obsolete things are always forgotten.

Vinyl will never die completely though, there's always a small niche for obsolete technology.

So by your rationale only popular things are worth remembering?

The person who records them is the one who decides what is worth remembering, there are vinyl to digital services floating around so it's not like just a handful of people decide on what is worth remembering either.

Don't get me wrong, I grew up listening to vinyl records and I love the nostalgia surrounding them but it's just that, nostalgia.
I think even books will slowly but eventually die off since digital devices just get better and more efficient every year.

So the concept of nostalgia will also eventually become nostalgic? Because I can't see people ever thinking back to that moment when they clicked [Download] for that book.

Your phone will explode, Ahmed. You know this.

People will always feel nostalgic over their own past, there's a whole retro resurgence in videogames for example with new games emulating the developer's childhood games.
I personally already feel some nostalgia about the small things during my early computer and internet days, what seems soulless to you might mean everything to someone else, it's just a matter of perspective.

I know you're being a fuckwit, but what the hell.

Whick books are too unwieldy for your patrician arms? I understand effeminate aesthetics even if I don't appreciate them, but you are surely in ill health if literature is straining you. To be truly worldly, you must appreciate things beyond your own weaknesses. Please adjust your diet and exercise.

If you've read the book, as another user mntioned, you shouldn't need to search for a passage. However, if you find you prefer annotated and analysed literature, the indexed versions are usually available. Your laziness will drain your wallet, though.

Do you not have a lamp? Windows? In addition to this, a book will not strain your eyes unless you do not focus on anything else further afield. This is the same for all things. Perhaps if you have sight issues this is understandable. Yet implying a phone screen or otherwise will not hurt your eyes is errenous; the bluelight in screens is known to damage longterm vision. Even with ereaders, continous reading of any kind can take a toll. Stop being facetious, please.

You are certainly correct in the convenience and storage aspects. Nothing wrong with convenience. But if I want minimal space, I'll just loan from a library. I'm not wasting a few dollars for the rights to read something- I haven't actually purchased anything physical.

Books have a nice feel, smell, and aesthetic. It's not for everyone.

Happy reading, user.

So you think people will someday be nostalgic about that digital copy of a book on their kindle? Or about that album they downloaded off itunes?

I already feel nostalgic over albums I pirated and listened on winamp, and not just nostalgic about listening to them but the whole process of downloading and messing around with the audio player, digital books weren't really a thing back then so I can't comment on that but I see no reason why they couldn't be nostalgic for someone.

But I'm not talking about the process. Or the content. You can feel nostalgic about a book you had as a child because the feelings attached to the physical form. I'm just not understanding how someone can be nostalgic about a specific digital version of something.

>anons reading digital letters in a digital website defending analog letters digitally
ahahahahahaaa

The feeling of "owning" something naturally diminishes if you can't see and touch it but that's not what nostalgia is necessarily about, nostalgia is the remembrance of past experiences and these experiences can take any form.

>reading on your phone

studying or referencing on an ereader is a pain in the ass