paper books versus ebooks

[bcgirl]

I am moving soon and again facing my hundreds of books in boxes. My last move I donated one of my two book cases...and I so regretted it. Every book has a story, a memory, was a gift, or was bought by myself, etc. So I started buying books again, have about 50 on my Sony ereader PRS-T1. My dilemma; do I really have space to buy more paper books? Ugh...love the convenience and storage of my ereader but books are so much more fun. How do you feel about your book collection?

[Tarana]

My novel collection is gone, all but about 5 books that I'm going to have OCR'd. However, it was an easy decision because I had permanent vision damage. The ones I would have missed the most were kept until recently. Now that I have ebooks of them, it's easier to part with them. They really loved them at the Senior Center. Several were taken out right away for reading.

I sympathize. It's a painful process because you are attached to them. My one sister is currently going through this process because she has a small house with no more space. However, think of the space you will have. Most of those books are not rereads. Pass them on to others. Keep the rereads because they are friends. I use my bookshelves to store my craft projects and supplies now. Much easier access and the shelves are still in use.

Make sure that you have copies of your ebooks on a flashdrive or something stored with someone else in case of fire, theft, tornado, hurricane, or other calamity.

[VictoriaP]

I'll be glad to be rid of 90% or so of my paper collection as soon as possible. I don't think of dead trees as fun; I see them as dust catchers that cost me an arm and a leg to move. That's one of the biggest advantages of ebooks--more portable, and takes up far less space.

[pidgeon92]

My paper book collection, which was a decent size, is long gone. I've got a couple dozen left, which are going into a pile for the yard sale this summer. I'm finished, not only with books, but with stuff in general. If I haven't used it in more than a year, it's going. 2014 is the Year of the Purge.

[Dngrsone]

I have more than 300 paperbacks still. I have purged once already, but many of the remaining books are favorites that I have wanted to reread, etc.

Fact is, there is no place for me to put the books outside of storage, and so I may have to donate or otherwise dispose of all but the most thumbworn volumes.

Meanwhile, I will have to find or make electronic versions of all these books...

[Lemurion]

I donated most of my paper volumes last summer. I just couldn't keep them. I've bought one paper book for myself in 6 months because I just can't read paper any more.

[PurpleStar]

I sold about 1/3 of my paper books last year. I kept books that are my favorites and that I'd re-read and my Star Trek book collection. Though, I never want to pick up a paper book, I'm always reading ebooks instead. I suppose I should get rid of the paper books I have if I just want to read ebooks, but for some reason I don't want to let go of them. I spent an awful lot of money on them and it would be hard to let them go for next to nothing. Also hard to replace them all with ebooks, because that is expensive. I have replaced a few though, with ebooks and maybe when I buy some more of them on ebook, I'll clear some more out. I can't imagine having no paper books though.

[greenapple]

wrong post, deleted
sorry

[AndrewH]

I'm attached to particular stories, not the container they're held in. After moving five times with over 400 paper books, I'm over it. I'm glad to have obtained ebook duplicates of nearly all my paper books and donated the paper versions. I'm down to 20 paper novels, 18 of which I just can't find in ebook form, and 2 of which were written and given to me by a friend.

[banjobama]

I have one physical bookshelf. It still has room. When it's full, I won't be buying any more treebooks. I have almost 1100 ebooks on my computer. So, I've made my choice.

All the treebooks I have are special to me for some reason, or they're reference books. Any fiction/novels, I get the digital copy.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by banjobama

I have one physical bookshelf. It still has room. When it's full, I won't be buying any more treebooks. I have almost 1100 ebooks on my computer. So, I've made my choice.

All the treebooks I have are special to me for some reason, or they're reference books. Any fiction/novels, I get the digital copy.

I've the same (except that I have more than one physical bookshelf...).

Any book that I'd before buy in a paperback edition, I now get a digital copy.

[cromag]

I have some hardcopy books that hold sentimental value, but not all that many. I don't have too much trouble letting them go if I need to.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Any book that I'd before buy in a paperback edition, I now get a digital copy.

Originally Posted by cromag

I have some hardcopy books that hold sentimental value, but not all that many.

I still have a rather sizable Ent cemetery, but I've almost completely switched over to digital for new purchases. Amazon's decision to discontinue their 4-for-3 paperback deal in favor of a 10% discount from MSRP helped a lot in that respect. Just about the only physical books I buy these days are graphic novels, and I've even bought a few of those digitally now.

Slowly but surely, I'm replacing those dead trees with electrons. I watch the prices and deals, and when the time is right, I pounce...and then sell the replaced physical versions in periodic lumps. There are exceptions, though; I have a decent collection of signed physical books that I have no plans to get rid of, even after getting electronic copies.

For the sake of illustration, I have about 400 physical books on my TBR stack, and about 650 more ebooks to read. The physical stack is holding steady, just because I'm barely adding to it and it takes more effort to dig something out of there than to search my ereader for something. Still, I am making that effort, slowly but surely whittling away at the physical stacks when feasible. I'm trying to develop the habit of catching up with a physical series, then switching to the ereader for a couple of books, then going physical again - back and forth, paring both stacks down. It's not easy, but it needs done.

[bookaho!ic]

i still have about 150 real books (all bar 20 which are hubbies I have read) hoping to buy quite a few on ebook though

on my ereader I have 90 bought books and 650 freebie ebooks so I doubt I will run out of things to read

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by bcgirl

Every book has a story, a memory, was a gift, or was bought by myself... How do you feel about your book collection?

None of my books have stories, apart from 10 hardcovers or so that are either out of print (in Dutch *and* English), or are very old (only one of them).

All of the rest are paperbacks bought either online or second hand, and I'm almost done replacing them with ebooks. The recent huge Kobo codes almost allowed me to do it, if not for the fact that there are some books that are not available at Kobo.

I'm actually in the process of burning... eh... selling/giving away my books. Maybe I'll start building an "epic book case" one day, that will only contain hardcovers of my absolute very highest favorites, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are less than 50 books on that list.

Putting 50.000 books on a hard drive is peanuts.

===

My music collection has been ripped to digital FLAC format 100%. If I want a CD, I buy it second hand, rip it, and then just give it away if someone wants it. I might actually give it back to the second hand store it came from, at some point.

Nowadays, ripping to FLAC is not prohibitive with regard to storage anymore. (Except when you own 10.000 CD's or so. Then you might need a few extra hard drives.)

===

My DVD-collection on the other hand, is a different matter. There isn't a good digital alternative yet, apart from downloading movies (which is still legal in the Netherlands). Some services such as Netflix are coming, but obviously, they don't allow you to keep movies. Also, there is not yet an almost universal lossless format for video like there's FLAC for music, and if there was, it would take huge amounts of storage.

Therefore I'm settling at this approach:
- Movies I think I'd want to see: Download, or Netflix them if they have it.
- If it's a good movie I'd possibly rewatch: buy it on DVD (cheap)
- If it's a movie I just have to have: buy it on blu-ray (can be expensive)

I've already started my "epic DVD case". It holds Blu-ray discs of my absolute favorites, DVD's of movies I like but are not favorites, and I'm giving the rest away.

===

For some reason, I care less about the movies than about the (digital) books. I can watch a movie, and not have it on DVD. I don't have to have every movie I ever saw; my favorites and the ones I like are enough. On the other hand, it seems I must have every book I ever read.

===

Oh, and then there are the pictures. They've been fully digital for me since 2004. I have no physical pictures, apart from those my mother took before 2004.

===

Because of the huge space requirements of books, DVD's, and picture albums, I'm quite happy to have all of it digitally, but I understand it can't be like that for everybody; you'll need to have the skills to manage such a digital collection; skills you don't need to manage a physical collection.

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

My paper book collection, which was a decent size, is long gone. I've got a couple dozen left, which are going into a pile for the yard sale this summer. I'm finished, not only with books, but with stuff in general. If I haven't used it in more than a year, it's going. 2014 is the Year of the Purge.

Heh. GMTA. I'm also purging a lot of stuff and in the case of books and music, replacing it with digital equivalents. I like to have a clean house, but I can understand that some people may think my house is not "lived in", if you know what I mean.