Quote:
Originally Posted by auspex
But the fact that it's legal to buy used books in the US (and particularly in the US) is key—and not legal to buy a used e-book. Those kids who preferred paper actually seemed to understand the legal issues.
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Most of those "kids" in this age bracket are buying, selling & RE-selling their textbooks &/or books from their reading lists from classes they're no longer taking. So of course, they're already familiar with the side benefits of paper vs electronic.
Growing up blue-collar in a big city, all MY reading was from the library, not a bookstore. My dad regularly read 12 - 20 westerns a week, so I got the bug early. It became a pattern -- read a book from the library, re-read it a few months later, if I liked it Very Much - save up the money to go buy the paperback. Read that paperback at least once a year until it fell apart, then start looking for another copy in used book stores.
Now I live WAY OUT in the country, the local library has less books (<4500) than my own personal library (over 5000), and most of those are either kids books, romance, true crime, or NYT Best Sellers, and sold off every 6 months to make room for newer books. None of the local libraries have ebook systems so I have to either depend on free books, hope there's a large enough sample to give a good sense of the book, or wait until WallyWorld's book supplier happens to stock the paperback this week.
I love ebooks, not just for the space-saving aspect (my paperbooks are mostly packed away due to space limits), but the ease of completing sets, reading more by the same author, etc. [now if I can just find a library where I can get digital access without spending $60.00+ /year for a non-resident library card.]
Kathy