Quote:
Originally Posted by uebyn
With ebooks, you don't get that. Searching by keywords on Smashwords? Clicking on 'People who browsed this also bought...' on Amazon? Yeah, helpful, but not enjoyable. A flat experience no different from Googling online.
Why am I still saying this NOW? Precisely because there're so many converts now, I'm wondering: why did you switch to ebooks? Have you forgotten the pleasure of books browsing, or is the e-book experience comparable to that of the old-school experience? Or has convenience displaced experience?
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I still browse bookstores and libraries, and sometimes I buy paper books (depending on whether they are cheaper than the ebooks). I also get on goodreads, and read reviewer blogs, and join groups of people who are fans of this or that genre or author. So online I am pretty well-integrated into several communities of readers and reviewers. Goodreads will tell me also when any author I read has a new book out. If I can get a book for free that sounds interesting, also, I will. I think my process of book discovery is working out pretty well.
But you know, back when I was a student and didn't have much money for books, my method of discovery was to go to the library and browse the shelves. What they had was what I could get. I still do that for real books. And I do the exact same thing for ebooks now on Overdrive, too.