[AngryD]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

Thank you @ AngryD.

I'll just add one thing: there is no college student in the universe that longs to lug fifty pounds of paper books, instead of accessing them all via laptop / chromebook / tablet. None. Zero.

Agreed. When I was working on my master's I had a lengthy paper to write for my Homeland Security Policy course. I was forced to hump a netbook laptop, and a copy of The Homeland Security Handbook in my backpack all the way to Europe for a trip I went on with my mom.

That book, alone was 1476 pages before the abridged version came out at 972-- and I did not have the abridged version. (Ironically, I was going to work on the paper on the flights, but wasn't aware that international flights at the time didn't have internet, so I couldn't do most of the research I needed to do since I couldn't access my university library or LexisNexis. So I trudged that f*ckin' book four thousand miles and through nine airports for nothing!)

I also want to point out that one of the errors of the previous link was left unsaid in my rebuttal: It's not a matter of polling , because polling will always be inaccurate for a variety of reasons including the wording of the questions. Every person in this forum read something in the last year that was written on paper, so asking "Do you exclusively read eBooks?" is futile.

A much more accurate way of determining whether digital media use is rising is to look at sales. Two factors are driving e-book sales higher, despite a slight lull during the summer months, when all book sales drop slightly, before going back to school. (Fall book sales are not yet reported, but my gut feeling is that they'll bump up like they did last year as kids in school are exposed to new authors and genres they want to try.)

First, the physical cost of books is rising due to a lumber shortage. The Covid nonsense has interfered with supply chains for every conceivable physical product from beef to baskets. (I can't wait for us to look back in 50 years and realize how damnfool stupid we were to overreact to a rather mild virus.)

Second, market share of e-books is rising because the low cost is allowing us to take chances on authors we normally wouldn't risk. I won't drop $45 on a hardback for an author of which I've never heard, but I'll shell out $1 to try the first book in his series. I joke all the time that Amazon knows how to market to me: they take an independent author and give me his first book for 99 cents. Then the next four in the series are full price. That's how I discovered NPCs by Drew Hayes. A truly phenomenal series and the first book is absolutely free.

E-Book market share is growing and will continue to grow as we continue to raise children with iPads and cell phones:

Ebook market share 2021
Ebooks make up 21% of total book sales
In August 2021 the American Association of Publishers, which represents mostly mainstream consumer book publishers, reported that among their members ebook sales accounted for 13.7% of sales revenue. Bear in mind that this figure relates to revenue from the sale of popular, consumer ebooks by established trade publishers. It largely excludes sales of educational and technical titles, and sales through self-publishing platforms. And those categories typically comprise a much higher percentage of digital sales. But if you’re curious about the books you see in your local bookstore, then 13.7% is a useful data point.

A market share of 21% of all book sales is neither insignificant nor indicative of something that "sucks," and it definitely indicates that a large portion of the population, certainly more than the 1400 people who were sampled in the previous link, think that eBooks have considerable value. 2021 was a benchmark year for eBook sales and I think 2022 will go even higher.

One thing I should point out, though, is that what annoys me about the original article is what always annoys me about the buffoons who write for The Atlantic. Who friggin' cares about their opinion?

Read what you want to read and read it how you want to read it.The dipsh*t who wrote that poorly researched Atlantic article, Ian Bogost, is quick to pretentiously mention all the highbrow artsy-fartsy crap he reads. Bully for him. I'm glad he gets so much joy out of looking at pictures, but I read largely for entertainment, and none of his ephemeral declarations changes how I consume literature and art. This is the sort of person who also claims that Science Fiction and Fantasy are not "really" literature because reasons. (JK Rowling, Tolkien, and CS Lewis would argue with you. And so would literally every Greek author of antiquity.)

It irritates me to have some pedantic twit tell me I shouldn't like something because he doesn't like it. Like his feelings are not valid unless he somehow persuades me to feel the exact same way. This is an intellectually dishonest debate tactic called "Appeal to the Masses."

I don't like Disney's take on the Star Wars universe and won't buy anything from them as long as they own the intellectual property. I don't care that you like it. I hope you do like it. I hope you get joy from it. I don't need to persuade you that the movies are terrible, objectively and subjectively (although I adore MauLer's critiques because they make me a better writer).

There is far too little joy in this world as it is. We don't need some pretentious clowneass educated far beyond his intelligence to tell us we're not liking books the right way. I'm annoyed by the fact that this 'professor of film and literary studies' can't fathom the difference between his opinion and a fact. (Perhaps he should watch MauLer's videos. He spoke for 45 minutes on that topic alone.)

My only real skin in the game of proving that eBooks are valid sellers is that I want publishers and authors to continue using that medium so that more books are available for me to purchase and enjoy. If we start reinforcing the original publisher falsehood that "People really don't like eBooks," then they are going to stop selling them and then we have a problem when the books we want to have as eBooks are no longer available.

If you prefer paper, buy paper. You'll spend more and that means you'll be able to buy fewer books. They take up more space and therefore you won't have physical room to keep as many as you'd probably like. They weigh more, so you can't carry as many with you as you most likely would prefer, but if that is what you want to read and how you want to read it: Go to town!