Quote:
Originally Posted by krischik
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A Moleskine notebook is very cheap to produce, and the company moved manufacturing to China to save additional expenses. The only content is their BS Hemingway/Picasso marketing thing. It's made slightly better than the average perfect-bound Paperback and they charge $10-15 or more per notebook. Cost of production is very low, margins are very high, and people buy the things all the time, even though the quality is ho-hum and it doesn't come pre-filled.
When I buy a paper book, I'm buying a book. I'm buying a physical object. I care relatively little about where the money finally ends up. As a consumer, I'm paying for the book itself. If I just want to read it, I can do that for free in a library or at a bookstore or from a friend lending me the book.
One of the first major appealing factors of ebooks to me was that I could find books that are only available in ungainly sizes or with wretched formatting and cover art that I could print into quality pocket books for my own personal use. Of course, the cost of making a decent little book for myself is quite high, and the time consumption is a factor, and then I have to hope the book doesn't have restrictive licensing on that kind of thing.
That was part of the motivation to go to digital readers, but that being wholly inferior to paper in my opinion leaves me with an expensive paperweight that people come by and touch, thinking it's a cool pda, and then walking away laughing at how much I paid for such a ridiculously crippled piece of technology.
Luckily we have choices, and I can still just buy paper books (when I can find them locally, or I can spend 2-3x the cost of the books on international shipping).