Is there still a need for paper books?

[boxcorner]

I bought a natural history book recently - a wild flower identification guide. It is designed for field use, with colour-coded sections to facilitate identification, by flower colour, habitat, and so on. Flicking through it, it occurred to me that an e-book wouldn't be anywhere near as versatile. Are books intended for outdoor use a niche that might survive?

[Aurora13]

I think so, as well as cookbooks (with pictures, because I think a lot of people like the pics , I'm more into the recipes though!), and I would think that picture books for children would be nicer in pbook or hardback, also I have a couple of Yoga books that I think are better then an e-reader version.

[Cpl Punishment]

I have all the toys...and still prefer it.

[feenix1363]

Ereaders are great for novels, but I still buy reference material and DTBs for my own collection and research purposes.

[mldavis2]

Agreed. Field guides are perhaps best utilized as pBooks or for some topics such as birding a smart phone app with sounds. Coffee table books and bookshelf displays are still pBook domain and I doubt many people would agree to eliminating their collection of pBook classics in the home unless there is serious space limitation. However for 95% of my reading, eBooks work.

[fjtorres]

Currently deployed reader tech is not up the needs of the academic, technical, or professional markets, as witnessed by the prevalence of pdf in those areas.
This will change.
There's gold in them thar hills.

ePub3 is a fumbling half step in that general direction but there's a way to go yet.
That's a market for the *next* decade, the 20's.

[elemenoP]

Actually I recently bought the Sibley bird guide for my iphone, paid 30 bucks for an app!! I love it. I like to travel light when I'm birdwatching, so one less heavy book to lug around is great. It has some features that a book can't have, such as comparing two similar birds side by side, and listening to bird calls. And it's very quick to keep my "day list" (birds I saw on this outing) in the same app. I can also export the list as a CSV file. I love having my bird list as a spreadsheet instead of notes in a journal.

Even before the Sibley iphone app, there were different versions of the book: a bigger, heavier one for home use, and two smaller, lighter ones for the field. I do still enjoy perusing the bigger one at home. But I am loving the Sibley iphone app and I won't bring a field guide with me anymore.

eP

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by Aurora13

I think so, as well as cookbooks (with pictures, because I think a lot of people like the pics , I'm more into the recipes though!), and I would think that picture books for children would be nicer in pbook or hardback, also I have a couple of Yoga books that I think are better then an e-reader version.

I've bought my grandchild (yes I'm that old!) some children picture books for the Nook Color and they have loved them. While I would agree that there are categories where a DTB is better, the ebook format will continue to improve and even those areas will slowly disappear. I think it is far easier for a field manual to be deployed on an ereader instead of having to lug along the physical books.

[AlbertaCowboy]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

Actually I recently bought the Sibley bird guide for my iphone, paid 30 bucks for an app!! I love it. I like to travel light when I'm birdwatching, so one less heavy book to lug around is great. It has some features that a book can't have, such as comparing two similar birds side by side, and listening to bird calls. And it's very quick to keep my "day list" (birds I saw on this outing) in the same app. I can also export the list as a CSV file. I love having my bird list as a spreadsheet instead of notes in a journal.

Even before the Sibley iphone app, there were different versions of the book: a bigger, heavier one for home use, and two smaller, lighter ones for the field. I do still enjoy perusing the bigger one at home. But I am loving the Sibley iphone app and I won't bring a field guide with me anymore.

eP

I would have killed to have the bird comparison and bird calls included in Sibley's when I was taking an ornithology course in college! All I remember about that course was "quick, free beer" and "who cooks for youuuuuu?"
I can certainly see where apps would be easier on one's back than hauling around fieldbooks though. I would have loved to have had an iPad back then!

[OtterBooks]

Maybe eventually they'll have an ereader/tablet where you can load the digital photos you took of the birds, and it will analyze them and tell you the species.

[jbcohen]

I quite disagree. I have a field guide that I use for identifiying flowers in my neighborhood and I have them in electronic form only. I find that my blackberry is much more portable then any field guide and is much better at rendering the photos of the flowers that I see then the dead wood book is. In addition my purchase of the field guide includes updates and future editions, not something the dead wood would offer. Coffee table books, don't see the need. Photo albums, I have a digital photo frame.

Don't really see the need for printed or dead wood books in modern society. Personal opinion - we as a society are far to anchored in the past, cut ties with the past and full speed to the 22nd century warp factor 4.

[DiapDealer]

Pressed flowers don't work as well with ebooks... and I can't randomly stash cash for a rainy day in an ebook on my digital shelf. Teachers also can't get that distinctive sound made by dropping a heavy tome on a desk (to wake the classroom up) with an eReader either.

[Freeshadow]

It's been already scratched in several topics.
short answer: yes
because of the need of having multiple books open, fast leafing trough, etc.

[J. Strnad]

I have some oversized art books that wouldn't work even on a full-color tablet. Also a "novelty" book or two, like the Bob Dylan Scrapbook with fake ticket stubs and such, which I bought for my wife. She flipped through it once and now it's on the shelf.

The overwhelming amount of my reading material works perfectly well as an ebook.

[RainingLemur]

There'll always be a need for paper books.