Quote:
Originally Posted by mldavis2
I think we're on the same page here (pun intended). I guess I'm not sure why you would agree to pay more for the same eBook than the pBook edition. Are you out of bookshelf space, or do you see the eBook actually worth more for the convenience despite the potential obstacles of portability and obsolescence? By paying a higher price for the eBook, you are encouraging price gouging by the publishers, are you not? I assume then that your response to the thread is that you would do nothing to wait out any eBook shakedown? (No argument here, just questions. Thanks for the response.)
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Honestly, I find the reading experience so much more enjoyable with an ebook. Especially now using my kindle. I love being able to hold the kindle with one hand or laying it flat on a pillow on my lap and have both hands free for a snack or a drink. When reading epic size novels, as I am doing now, not having to cope with bulk of a pbook is fantastic. I can confidently say, I will likely never read a pbook novel again.
Plus, I am a bit of a geek. Even if you take away the convenience of being able to buy books without leaving the house or being able to travel and take all your novels with you in one compact form, I love the chapter markers, percent complete, built in dictionaries, etc. You can say this is a function of the reader, not the ebook - whatever - they are one in the same.
You talk about portability and obsolescence being a concern with ebooks. I disagree. Regarding obsolescence: fact is the drm is easy to remove - talk about whether it is legal or not, I don't care. I bought the book, I can remove the drm and easily sleep at night. remove the drm and use calibre and now you have a book that can be used on any device can be 'lent' to anyone for any length of time.
If you want to go to extremes and say, what if a drm scheme gets developed that cannot be cracked, what if calibre goes away and there is no replacement, what if amazon goes out of business and/or my kindle breaks and my kindle drm'd books are useless?
To that I say, what if your house burns down, what if you get robbed, what if you lend the book out and forget to who (has happened to me in the past), what if you spill coffee all over your pbook, what if, what if, what if.
Reality is, barring some catastrophic world event, you are going to be able to read your ebook file for many, many years to come. I would argue that the ebook will stand the test of time far better than a pbook.
You talk about portability - I don't follow how you think a pbook is more portable than an ebook. You can have hundreds of ebooks on a device smaller than a hardcover. Maybe I am missing what you are getting at here.
I also do not necessarily agree that by paying the higher price I am supporting price gouging. If I decide not to buy that book, how does the publisher know they lost a sale due to price? Vs. the publisher just thinking the market isn't there and stopping ebook sales altogether (I know this is extreme example and not likely to happen).
Also, let keep in mind that the majority (at least that I've seen) of ebooks are the same price or a little less than their pbook equivalent. Like I said before, I don't like that ebooks can be higher than the pbook, and I don't understand it. But, if there is an ebook I want to read and it costs more than the pbook, I'm going to buy it (assuming I feel the price reasonable) - why wouldn't I? So I can 'punish' the publisher? Ya right. I'm only punishing myself.
Yes, as I said in my first post in this thread, I am not waiting anything out.