Quote:
Originally Posted by Logseman
Ebooks make decision-making by a consumer potentially much closer to "complete rationality" (I put in quotation marks as I, like you, don't endorse the existence of such) than Pbooks. More concretely, Ebooks are much more homogenous than Pbooks as they're all nothing but files to download (the file size issue is non-existent today), and allow a buyer a much wider array of choices, i.e. something closer to "perfect information". In the time we take two p's in our hands and read the back covers, we can see 2 or 3 webpages with 50 titles each.
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I see your point, but I could do the same already in online stores for paper books. And while I do at times decide in the store to buy something usually I have a selection beforehand based on other sources. And books for me can not be randomly interchanged, total ebook access wouldn't increase the amount of books I would love to read that much.
I have preferences, authors I want to read as soon as possible, authors I would like to try, authors I would have to be paid to try... Independent on format. I have bought hardcovers despite the format, not despite the price, because I wanted access to a book.
On a tangent I still have not found an online bookstore (paper or e) that makes is as easy to browse for books as a physical bookstore (new or second hand). The amount of info I can get from a wall of (reasonably organized) books still seems to be superior for me to any webpage.