I said 'other' myself. Nearly all of the books I want to read are classics that are available for free or a few dollars at most. So much great (and now free) literature has existed in the more than 2,000 years prior to my birth that there is no end to what I can
when I get the time. This isn't about the money. I don't mind spending more on a book if I truly want it, but I really don't read popular novels at all. I prefer classics and writing my own work.
Sad thing is, nobody comes out looking good in this one:
- Macmillan ends up looking like jerks for attempting to fix book prices (regardless if they are truly trying to make things better in the long run - I won't hold my breath).
- Amazon looks like somewhat of a champion of the consumer, even if deep down they're only trying to grab more money and market for themselves.
- Apple (particularly Jobs) looks like a
for debuting a non-e-reader, e-reader that kinda started this whole avalanche rolling. I'm not even going to get into how much of a big 'ol bag of hurt (from every angle) the iPad is in this thread.
- The authors look weak, whiny, and greedy. Those that need the money the most are powerless to do anything about it, and those who have the most power to do something about it don't really need the money.
At the end of the day, all this will serve to do is further push pirating of ebooks. As mcl said earlier in the thread, "perception is reality." I couldn't agree more.