My response: I want to like physical books, but I just can’t.
They are so heavy that when I move I nearly break my back. When I go on a trip, I can only carry a few of them. I can carry thousands of ebooks if I want.
Physical books are smelly and they decay. They also attract bugs and take up far too much space in the house. And I don’t like displaying what I read to other people as I want as many as possible to know as little about me as possible, so ebooks are much more private.
Copying text out of a physical book is a slow, manual process. It’s a few clicks in an ebook.
Some old people and their adoration of antiquated, inferior technology mystify me.
Stacked correctly, physical books are pretty bulletproof and as an American that is important.
So there’s that, I guess.
DRM issues with ebooks don’t bother you?
If a book has DRM on it, I crack it. If it can’t be cracked, I don’t use it.
But yeah if DRM becomes uncrackable, I will no longer use ebooks.
I like physical books when I have to study; for the rest, I find ebooks generally more practical.
And I don’t like displaying what I read to other people as I want as many as possible to know as little about me as possible, so ebooks are much more private.
As long as you’re downloading books from someone else’s server, there’s always the possibility that your reading history will be sold to many many third parties. So really, it’s only more private if you’re worried about people in your immediate environment.
My main issues with e readers are the planned obsolescence that’s part of many devices and the fact that many books I have will never be transferred to an e book format. It is possible for a book to last thousands of years; I’ve never seen any digital medium last or be readable for more than a decade. For books and magazines I’d read just once and never again, I don’t care about these things.
Good luck with that whole “reading history” thing.
According to the few things I buy digitally, I’m a 46-year-old woman from Minnesota.
Hint: I’m not a 46-year-old woman from Minnesota. 😉
Gender flipped Garrison Keillor sounds kind of boring.
The technology is in its infancy and will surely get better, simply because most people don’t seem to care about privacy and most people are predictable. How many people do you think uploaded a photo to How Old without reading the EULA?
You just know they’re going to build in eye movement tracking technology and note how long you’ve read something and when & where you stop to “better service your reading needs.” :p