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Old 04-29-2008, 01:52 PM   #19
rhadin
Literacy = Understanding
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Posts: 4,833
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: The World of Books
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DaleDe View Post
I was trying to understand why this would be true unless you just wanted eBooks for free with no intention of buying.
Dale, I spend between $5,000 and $7,500 every year (or have until the recession hit and I've slowed my pace this year) for the last 10 years or so. But most of the books I have bought are from authors with whom I am familiar or based on reviews I have read in publications such as the New York Review of Books, the New York Times Book Review, the London Review of Books, and The Economist, or because a book I am reading is citing a particular author/book. I also buy books that I can spend some time reading at my local Barnes & Noble so I get a feel for them.

What I never do is try to evaluate a book by reading a PDF on my computer because by the time I am reading to do my pleasure reading, I simply cannot bear to look at my computer screen for 1 second more and thus would not give a book a fair evaluation.

I am not suggesting that the books need to be given away free ever. Nor am I suggesting that a publisher doesn't have the right to choose the format. I am simply saying that I won't blindly buy a book, which is what you have to do for the most part with e-books, and if I can't make an e-book readable on my Sony Reader, I won't try a book at all.

There is one other point: When I buy a book at Barnes & Noble's website, if when I receive the book it isn't what I expected or want, I can return it. That's because there is a physical product to return. However, the same isn't true with an e-book, which makes it harder to justify buying an unknown author.
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