Quote:
Originally Posted by moyogi2
I used to drive an hour and a half to Madison, Wisconsin to hit the used bookstores around the University of Wisconsin. I would spend several hours looking, and come out with $100 spent and a big bag of books. I read all the time, and soon I had a house full of books. I thought life was great. Then Amazon came along, and I could use the wish list and buy a couple of books at a time, and I stopped driving to Madison. And I had the books in a couple of days. Now, with ereaders, when I find a book I want to read, I can be reading in a couple of minutes. I use calibre, wishlists, goodreads, and other tools to keep track of what I want to read and find other books. I got rid of thousands of paper books. I read more than ever, and overall I am sure I am spending less than ever. No clutter, no waiting for the mail, no long car trips. I don't care if I spend $12.99 - I used to spend $25 for hardcovers all the time, or 12 or more for trade paper, now I average $8 and I think it's great.
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My experience is very similar. I've got rid of most of the books which were cluttering up my house, replacing them with ebooks which reside on the hard disk of a single computer (and on a backup disk, of course) and from time to time on various reading devices. I'm not sentimental about paper books. For me it has never been about the presentation, only the content. So for me, EBooks are ideal. And the price and sheer variety and availability are all headed in the right direction. Yes, we are still recovering from a hundred years or so of cartel operations, but competition has entered this industry like a breath of fresh air.