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Old 07-15-2011, 07:45 AM   #12
Toastedpine
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Toastedpine doesn't litterToastedpine doesn't litter
 
Posts: 90
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Device: Kobo Touch
Books have certain advantages:

1) The text and pictures you buy is yours for as long as you keep your book. Since ebooks come in in different file types, there's a chance that support for them or the DRM on them will no longer be supported in the future. You may argue maybe epubs will be around forever just like text files, but text files can't support pictures with text the way a book can.

2) Paper books do not require a reading program or device. No electricity? No problem. Suppose you're out camping, and you decide to bring a book on edible wild plants with you. Ebooks can be used in this case, but I think it's more practical to bring the real thing.

3) Size (and shape) does matter. Not everything is meant to be crammed in a small paperback novel. Cookbooks, for example, benefit greatly from color, non-standard page size, and reasonable resistance to oil residue.

4) Flipping through a book is sometimes important. When you're looking for a passage, or a picture, sometimes, it's just faster and easier to run your hands along the side of the book, and crack it open at the approximate location of what you're looking for. Sliders are great, but they don't give you as concrete a sense of space as a book does.

5) You can borrow books from friends without strings attached. We all have reading lists, and friends who help add to those reading lists. Electronic lending may be more convenient in some ways, but I don't relish the thought of books in my reading list not working after a couple of weeks.
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