Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
My standard response: I value ebooks more, so I refuse to compare their prices to the price of a format I value much less.
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I'm the opposite. I rarely buy an ebook (actually, I never buy one for myself, just for my wife when she asks). I find the restrictions on ebooks too limiting to justify the cost. I buy a lot of books (at this very moment, I have 76 hardcovers on preorder) each year and I want to not only be able to reade them when I want, but be able to share them with friends and family and eventually pass them on to my granddaughters or donate them to a small country library that has a limited budget.
I understand that there are ways to make an ebook less restrictive, but why should I have to do so?
And pricing is high on ebooks, at least for the ones I tend to buy. For example, I just purchased
Character: The History of a Cultural Obsession by Marjorie Garber in hardcover for $22.31. The Kindle version is $16.99. For a little more than $5 I get a copy that I can do with as I wish, can share with others easily, and return to 10 years from now and know that it is mine. I don't have to worry that for some reason the book is no longer available from Amazon.
What I think should be the case is that if you buy the physical version, you should get access to the ebook version for no charge or a very nominal sum (like $1). But I see no reason in my case to pay the high prices demanded for ebooks.
Here are other examples of recent purchases:
Of course, some books just aren't available as ebooks, like
Antisemitism: Myth and Hate from Antiquity to the Present by Marvin Perry and Frederick M. Schweitzer, which I bought new for $26.00 (I mention the condition because it is a book from 2003 and was only available as a "used" book and current pricing is much higher).