MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - What Do You Do When A Book Isn't Available For eReaders?

Larksong · 02-05-2011, 01:27 PM

There are authors I collect, love, and read over and over. These I prefer in print versions -- or, to be honest, what I would prefer is to have them in both formats. The bound copy I will read at or close to home; the e-book copy I would read on the road. I say "would" because by and large, I can't afford to pay twice for a book. Some paperbacks eventually drop in price enough for me to purchase the e-book copy in addition to the bound copy.

You'd think the publishers would get wise to this, and bundle an e-book copy with the bound copy. I'd pay a dollar or two extra for that, even buying a book in hard cover.

I'm not willing to have books by favorite authors -- books I know I will re-read more than once -- in ebook format only. ePUB is nice, but there's no guarantee that 10 years from now, I'll be able to buy a device that can read it. That's probably true of any format -- and certainly true of any format if you project 20 years down the road. And I'm really not enthralled with the idea of having to do for my book collection what we're having to do for our music collection and video collection -- purchase CDs and/or MP3s to replace what we had on vinyl or cassette tape, and DVDs or Blu-Ray to replace our now-wearing-out videotapes.

I love the portability of ebooks, but NO technology lasts forever, and recent technologies seem to become obsolete (or wear out, e.g. videocassettes) more and more quickly. Bound books do at least stick around and stay readable for something between half a lifetime and several lifetimes.

02-05-2011, 01:27 PM	#88
Larksong Member Posts: 16 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2010 Location: U.S. Device: Sony PRS-505	There are authors I collect, love, and read over and over. These I prefer in print versions -- or, to be honest, what I would prefer is to have them in both formats. The bound copy I will read at or close to home; the e-book copy I would read on the road. I say "would" because by and large, I can't afford to pay twice for a book. Some paperbacks eventually drop in price enough for me to purchase the e-book copy in addition to the bound copy. You'd think the publishers would get wise to this, and bundle an e-book copy with the bound copy. I'd pay a dollar or two extra for that, even buying a book in hard cover. I'm not willing to have books by favorite authors -- books I know I will re-read more than once -- in ebook format only. ePUB is nice, but there's no guarantee that 10 years from now, I'll be able to buy a device that can read it. That's probably true of any format -- and certainly true of any format if you project 20 years down the road. And I'm really not enthralled with the idea of having to do for my book collection what we're having to do for our music collection and video collection -- purchase CDs and/or MP3s to replace what we had on vinyl or cassette tape, and DVDs or Blu-Ray to replace our now-wearing-out videotapes. I love the portability of ebooks, but NO technology lasts forever, and recent technologies seem to become obsolete (or wear out, e.g. videocassettes) more and more quickly. Bound books do at least stick around and stay readable for something between half a lifetime and several lifetimes.