Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony1988
Yeah I get that. But why are people worried if a novel they bought on an ereader....will still be available to them 20 years later??? It doesn't make sense. 20 years is under a quarter of a lifetime statistically and many people who read ebooks are not spring chickens. I guess if one is 10 years old and wants to read a book again when they are 30. But a ten year old is not thinking about such things and can re-buy the book when they are making their own money.
I like to read novels. Pretty much once I am done with it I don't re-read. If I get a hankering to reread it one day and if I don't have a copy I will re-buy it. But I could only think of maybe at most a dozen books right now that I would maybe do that.
Now if you are doing it for the reasons you state, again I don't think it's a worry if you are older. Do you see yourself looking at your reference library 20 years plus from now?
Again people know the score when buying books on an ereader. They can disappear at any time and probably will disappear as technology advances into the future or companies fall. I for one do not want to continually diddle around with electronically storing old book files, or keeping older outdated devices to manage them. Just not worth my time. If I really really really want to keep a book for the future I will buy a hard copy of it.
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I'm not worried about technology - I already went from 78 rpms to 45/33 to cds to mp3. I heard laments at the beginning of cds, but it gave us much more choice and convenience.
To go back to the start of your post: I'm 67 years old and I hope I'll have my reference library and my novels if I reach 87, which is statistically very possible, and electronics will allow me to have it even in an eventual retirement home (frankly that was a preoccupation before).
I'm a rereader, a species more common than you seem to think - I even have several books about rereading. And a reference library is not something I'll want to access in 20 or 30 years, it is something I access quite frequently, for instance a poem, a quote from Shakespeare or the bible, but also the beginning of a series or whatever.
The beauty of electronics is it gives us more choices and more answers for "paper" problems. I would hate if it eliminated paper - I do want the choice.