Shifting back to physical books...

[poohbear_nc]

I agree largely with ProfCrash & Ripplinger - as my eyesight deteriorates I treasure the ability to magnify/sharpen the text, and the instant gratification of downloading ebooks.

That said, I have a curious prejudice in what I'm comfortable reading as an ebook. For some reason, I can't accustom myself yet to reading poetry as an ebook [there aren't that many available yet anyways] - for some reason my brain insists on having a physical book in hand to fully appreciate the form & structure of the poetry. I have many poetry ebooks that I read on my 8.9" Fire HD or Kindle DX - so I can display the stanzas as written in a font size large enough to read - but it's not the same. Part of it is my tendency to make notes around the poem's margins, or underline words, which you can sort of do on a reader or tablet, but visually it's just not the same. It's as if when I read a poem, I also create my own version of meaning with my annotations - which I can't do with an ebook.

But, I did recently read 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' on my Fire - and the Dore engravings displayed magnificently.

[xg4bx]

Yup, I'm back up to about 95% paper.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

Just like the title of the thread says, I've slowly been shifting my reading back to physical books lately. Has this been the case for anyone else?

No, it didn't for me. Let me show you one of my re-reads of the near future:





1.036 pages. Nuff said.
(In a normal Del Rey / Random House paperback size with ~2400 characters per page, the total number of pages would be 1.181, according to Calibre's Count Pages plugin, the series being 5 books, making an average of 235 pages per book.)

If some more explanation is warranted:

1. The e-reader allows me to read that in public transport.
2. "Allows me to", firstly because of size, and secondly because the e-reader is anonymous. I have reached an age at which reading books like that could easily be considered childish. And it will be, because I live in a part of the Netherlands where people are often very narrow-minded about things they don't know. (The cover image alone is enough to tell these people that this is "probably not a book for proper grown-ups".) I'm not ashamed of whatever I want to read, but I'd rather not invite any comments. I'm normally Mr. Gentleman himself with a patience that could fill a bottomless well, but I know myself well enough to know that I have an extremely volatile personality if it comes to being harassed or ridiculed. I avoid that it happens.
3. Adjustable fonts and font sizes.
4. Free classics, saving me hundreds of euro's.
5. If I have to buy books in English in The Netherlands, a paperback will cost me between €7 and €10. An EPUB at a foreign store will often cost me (much) less than $7 (€5.25). This sometimes saves me 50% or more.
6. E-books save me entire walls of space.
7. E-books are much more easy to handle with regard to size and weight.
8. I can adjust the layout of an e-book if I so wish.

I did return to paper books from an e-reader in the beginning of 2008, but a lot of stuff I wanted to read was not available as an e-book back then. If it was, it was often a badly pirated and OCR-ed file. EPUB's were just starting out. If something was wrong with a book, it was almost impossible to fix it. Calibre was not (yet) mature enough, at least not for me. Conversion was tacky.

Much has changed in 5 years time. I'll never return to paper books. If the price for an e-book is too high compared to the paper version, I'll just wait until it comes down, or it becomes an offer somewhere. Enough other stuff to read.

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

Just like the title of the thread says, I've slowly been shifting my reading back to physical books lately. Has this been the case for anyone else?

It wasn't an intentional thing for me; over the last few months I just seem to have stopped impulse buying so many ebooks and buying more physical books. Before, if I heard about a book that sounded interesting, I would head to Kobo to check the price and see if a coupon code applied. Usually the price would be fairly low and I'd buy even where a coupon code didn't apply (it usually did). Now though, the price on Kobo and other ebook stores is typically higher than the price of the physical book, and I can't even remember the last book I wanted to buy that was eligible for a Kobo coupon.

Here's a couple recent examples:

• The Fault in Our Stars - $15.99 for the epub (Kobo), but $10.99 for the hardcover at Costco.

The vast price difference in that book, alone, has made me shift more to physical books. I read most of my ebooks from the library, but any books I want to really OWN are the paper kind. I have a budget to consider. And the public domain sites keep me in free reading material in the meantime.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Much has changed in 5 years time. I'll never return to paper books. If the price for an e-book is too high compared to the paper version, I'll just wait until it comes down, or it becomes an offer somewhere. Enough other stuff to read.

An exception, for me, are new books in a series I'm already reading. If I've finished whatever's been published & then a new one comes out, then I'll wait-but if the new one comes out while I'm still reading the old then I'll probably buy it no matter what the price. Within some practical reason, of course.

BTW, I'm a 60-year old male who enjoys reading, among other things, books for young adults. I worked with a guy (older than me) whose boast was that he hadn't read a book of fiction since he got out of college. To each his own but I simply refuse to hide who I am or what I read. We got along fine after I pointed out that his reading habits were at least as odd as mine were.

[mycurlylocks]

Digital books only for me. If I can't get an e-book, I just don't read it.

[ClairePMR]

Nope. Started reading ebooks with my Rocket Ebook in 1999 and haven't read more than a dozen physical books since, typically items that were unavailable in digital form. My digital library is easily 5000 books, added to nearly every day, with a "To Be Read" list of about 1500. The only time I have read a p-book in the last five years, in particular, was when we had an extended power outage (nine very long days!) and all my readers ran out of juice.

[Danger]

I tried going back to paperbacks when I broke my first Kobo. I actually hated it. So much so I drove 60km to pick up a new Kobo because every store around here was sold out at the time and only that store I went to had any and they were willing to put it behind the counter for me.

[Catlady]

I like being surrounded by shelves and shelves of my treasured books. E-books are fine as an alternative to cheap paperbacks, though.

Actually, if I really love a book, I like having it in both paper and digital forms.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Danger

I tried going back to paperbacks when I broke my first Kobo. I actually hated it.

LOL, yeah.

E-Reader: *put down, get a drink, pick up, read*
Paperback: *put down, slam shut* FRACK

E-Reader: *Hold with one hand, read*
Paperback: *Hold with one hand, make a V so you can't see anything* FRACK

E-Reader: *Fold back the cover, read*
Paperback: *Fold back the cover, break the spine, lose the pages* FRACK

E-Reader: *Read, re-read, re-read, re-read....*
Paperback: *Read, re-read, fall apart* FRACK

When reading paper books, I hugely prefer hardcovers, but they're so expensive... so I don't have many. I have a book sitting on a shelf here, and I really want to read that story, which is not available as an e-book. The thing that keeps me from it is the fact that it is a very nice hardcover... of about the size of the Cleric Quintet you see above, and almost 1.000 pages thick as well. Its a beautiful book to see and hold, but for ease of reading, the Kindle wins hands down.

Originally Posted by Katsunami

E-Reader: *put down, get a drink, pick up, read*
Paperback: *put down, slam shut* FRACK

E-Reader: *Hold with one hand, read*
Paperback: *Hold with one hand, make a V so you can't see anything* FRACK

E-Reader: *Fold back the cover, read*
Paperback: *Fold back the cover, break the spine, lose the pages* FRACK

E-Reader: *Read, re-read, re-read, re-read....*
Paperback: *Read, re-read, fall apart* FRACK

Reading paperbacks really isn't that hard. (Harder than using an ereader, sure. But it is hardly rocket science.)

[FanciFreez]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

I never stopped reading pbooks; in fact I intentionally look for a pbook to read after I've read a few ebooks. Someday the type on pbooks is going to be too small for me to read comfortably, and I dread that day. As far as pricing, I sometimes find used books for $3.99 or so with Amazon Prime free shipping. I love that! Just as I love finding a good promotion on an ebook. You sited The Fault in Our Stars as an example. On Amazon US, the ebook is $3.99 right now.

eP

After reading on my ebook readers, with the adjustable font size to fit my eyes, and then going to a BookStore and looking at a pbook, I think wow.. the font is so small.. how can I make font larger to fit my eyes on a pbook? (buy a magnifying glass?) please advise..

[Katsunami]

There are things that look like a ruler, but they magnify text, one or two lines at a time. You slide them from top to bottom as you read. I don't know how these things are called.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

There are things that look like a ruler, but they magnify text, one or two lines at a time. You slide them from top to bottom as you read. I don't know how these things are called.

My mother had a full page magnifier but she couldn't take it on the bus for instance, she had a smaller one for that. She is so happy with her old kindle3.

I guess for some moving a ruler like object around a page while you are snuggled up in bed with your hand protectors (for arthritis) is just as convenient. My mother used to do it with her magnifier, but would get quite upset at times when she dropped it.

Helen

[morriss003]

I've definitely purchased some print books because of the high price of the ebook.