Quote:
Originally Posted by salamanderjuice
Do most people buy hardcovers or paperback?
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I think most people rarely buy either and that library borrowing is more than both both combined.
Am I sure? No, because I can't find national total library circulation numbers. But here's some raw U.S. data consistent with my idea:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/...ook-sales-usa/
https://libguides.ala.org/libraryfac...apper-17302562
Quote:
Originally Posted by ekbell
And of course there are art books and the like which work best in paper form.
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It is not just art books. I mostly read narrative non-fiction and do lose something with eInk. Photographs are hard to see. And many of the books I read have one or two poorly rendered charts. History titles often include a list of characters. It is harder to pop back and forth to those than with a paper book, where I might use bookmarks.
I mobile read anyway because of weight, bigger fonts, and not having to travel to libraries. But just because I mostly read on eInk doesn't make critics wrong. As I wrote before, screens destroyed local journalism, having, I think, a terrible effect on positive civic engagement. I wonder if some committed mobile readers read non-fiction less because they would lose a bit of the content. If so, this is a genuine negative to society (although nothing like the decline of general interest newspapers and magazines).