Quote:
Originally Posted by shalym
They may last longer than your average ereader, but do they last longer than your average ebook? I know that I have files on my computer that were originally created 20 years ago, and they're still usable--I also have paperbacks that I bought 10 years ago that are falling apart.
Shari
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DuskyRose
I know that Library books are said to have about 30-35 loans in them before they start to fall apart. And there have been complaints on the trade sites that books are falling apart faster. Which could be to cheaper paper, glue, and the stress of being handled and mailing. I have several trade-size that fell apart during the first reading. Bad glue.
And people lose whole pbook libraries all the time, due to water/liquid/smoke/fire damage. When I moved overseas I had to get rid of most of my MMPB books, and only had a box of "keepers". When I finally got them, guess which -one- box in the whole shipment had gotten wet? I lost the rest to mold.
At least with the ebooks I can save copies at home and off-site. When I had a safety deposit box I'd burn a DVD of all our pictures and books on a DVD and put a copy in there. Now we have a media safe and Carbonite.
With ebooks, the machines are just the 'cover'. Ruin a cover, and if you've been backup stuff up, the 'contents' are fine. I have more faith I can recover those than the pbooks I still have all over the place.
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True, true. It does depend on the book. An acid-free hardcover, properly cared for will last a lot longer than most computer files. Your average MM paperback that you take to the bath or the beach, probably not so much.
The thing about the ebook files is, their usability is dependent on software and hardware that support that file format. Also, a hard drive crash is a lot more likely than a house fire (probably).