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italianReader, your comments about book preservation make me think of a way that ebooks might actually do paper books some good. There are no returns with ebooks. Returns, I personally think, are the bane of the publishing industry and need to be abolished. E-books, Publishing On Demand and other new publishing phenomena will force the industry to change and perhaps even spell the end of returns. Because returns eat into profits, publishers are forced to try and recoup their losses any way they can, usually by cutting corners with quality. Paperbacks are printed on cheap paper. Hardcovers are given inadequate bindings that crack after a few months' use, either because of cheap glue or because the perfect binding method is used. It's gotten to the point where I'm afraid to buy hardcovers. Before I buy one, I will inspect it to make sure it's got a good-looking binding that flexes rather than being rigid. So I'm looking forward to the end of returns, and if ebooks can hasten that then they can only be helpful, not harmful, to paper books.
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