Do you still buy paper books?

[spindlegirl]

I still buy paper books because I can find them for next to nothing at yard sales and I can legally be the first, tenth, or hundredth owner of that precise copy. I even get/give books for free at book swap meet-ups.

E-books have not replaced the tree-pulp kind, but have just added to the ways I can read books.

I almost never buy books at full price. A book I want goes on a wish list, and I'll buy it when I see it on sale, or refer to that list if I see a pile of books at a yard sale or library discard sale. (where I can buy books for pocket change).

I live at a time where, with e-books being all the rage, I can obtain printed books for nearly nothing, then without a thought can just pass them on when done. The bookcrossing philosophy remains alive and well as the world being one giant library.

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by spindlegirl

I still buy paper books because I can find them for next to nothing at yard sales and I can legally be the first, tenth, or hundredth owner of that precise copy. I even get/give books for free at book swap meet-ups.
E-books have not replaced the tree-pulp kind, but have just added to the ways I can read books.
I almost never buy books at full price. A book I want goes on a wish list, and I'll buy it when I see it on sale, or refer to that list if I see a pile of books at a yard sale or library discard sale. (where I can buy books for pocket change).
I live at a time where, with e-books being all the rage, I can obtain printed books for nearly nothing, then without a thought can just pass them on when done. The bookcrossing philosophy remains alive and well as the world being one giant library.

Yes, me an all ....

[caleb72]

I just bought Black Hills by Dan Simmons, Swiftly by Adam Roberts and Thirteen Years Later by Jasper Kent because they were all $5 each in a bargain book store.

As a rule of thumb, I don't buy paperbacks anymore. However, Dan Simmons at $5...gift horse - mouth.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by Justin Nemo

With all this chittle chattle here about best ereader and Kobo this and Nook that, I wonder if anyone buys books in paper anymore?

So what was the last pBook you bought?

Yes, I still spend a great deal on pbooks. I buy nonfiction in pbook and a few select fiction authors. My ebook purchases are all fiction (except for the very, very few nonfiction books that I buy in both pbook and ebook forms). My latest pbook purchase is the biograpohy of Heinrich Himmler by Richard Longerich. Every so often I publish a partial list of pbooks and ebooks that I have bought at my blog. The most recent list was published a week ago: On Today's Bookshelf (XI).

I do not think that ebooks are yet at the point of wholly supplanting pbooks. There are still things that do not come across well in ebook form, mostly in nonfiction.

[elemenoP]

Given a $9 ebook and a $9 paperback, I'll take the paperback. But I rarely do that anyway. I get most of my ebooks for free from the library, and most of my pbooks used from Amazon or free because I found them on the street. I live in a neighborhood full of readers and people leave books out on their stoop when they are done with them. I have only bought a handful of new pbooks in the last few years. Maybe I'll start buying more again this year or next, we'll see.

And yes, I take my daughter to the bookstore and buy her books pretty often.

eP

[WillAdams]

Yes, when the publisher will let me, for series which I've been reading in paperback and want to compleat the set of. Poster child for this is Steven Brust's Dragaera / Vladimir Taltos novels --- started buying these when _Jhereg_ first came out and have all of them on a shelf, sized for small paperbacks --- unfortunately, starting w/ _Iorich_ they've started publishing them in hardcover first, then in the larger ``trade'' paperback size and it seems that there will never be a printing in a size to match the ones which I already own.

End result is their sales are reduced by one (at least) and I'm reading these from the local library.

William

[DrNefario]

I bought the two paperback halves of GRRM's A Dance With Dragons yesterday in the supermarket. I'd actually prefer the ebooks for big unwieldy books like that, but they were on offer for a price substantially better than the ebooks, and I'm not going to pass that up. Also, I have the rest of the series in paper.

[Yapyap]

I just today received a brand new copy of a book from BookDepository that I'd recently read in, um, unofficial ebook form (seeing as there is no officially released ebook) and loved, so I hunted it down in paper.

I took a look at it, all happy and excited, and... well, if I want to read the book again, I'm afraid it's back to that very unofficial, not-well-formatted (but readable) ebook copy, because there is no way I'll be able to actually read this paperback with the tiny print and non-existent margins, which make it all but impossible to even see the words nearest the inner margins. Plus there's been a lot of ink smearing so quite a few pages are rather grey in tone. :-/

I'm still buying paper books, but honestly, with mass market paperbacks it's really if it's the only option available, if there is no legal ebook, because I find them physically very hard to read.

[RDaneel54]

When I must, yes.

I'm reading Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series now and there are several of the books that are out of print and not ebooks (about 7 - 10). So I order them used or hunt them up in a local used bookstore (mostly order).

Otherwise, it has to be something that I really need for research. The earlier editions of some pbooks are sometimes better than "revisions" that are available in pbook/ebook. In that case, I order the earlier pbook edition from the web.

If I went solely ebook, my reading would be lacking in some areas.

[tecweston]

Haven't bought a paper book in over a year.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I bought one on Saturday.

10 of the 22 books I've read this year have been paper. It all comes down to availability, cost, and climate some times. Sorry e-reading, but you don't really work well when it's -20C and you want to pull out something to read on the bus every now and then.

I'm all about options.

[calibrated]

I am *so* over paper. I haven't personally bought a paper book in a couple of years, although I did receive one as a Christmas gift last year. If something isn't available in e-book form, I don't buy it. After 40 years of voracious reading, I simply have no room left on my shelves, and that's that.

Also, I'm too impatient. Why drive to a bookstore when I can download something from the comfort of my living room?

[Joykins]

Yes, I bought _As Meat Loves Salt_ (not available in ebook) from one of those Amazon used dealers a few months ago. It was only $1.99 or something ludicrously cheap.

[anamardoll]

No, I no longer buy paper books.

Paper books are increasingly painful for me to use, and then of course I agree with this re: space constraints and convenience:

Originally Posted by calibrated

I am *so* over paper. I haven't personally bought a paper book in a couple of years, although I did receive one as a Christmas gift last year. If something isn't available in e-book form, I don't buy it. After 40 years of voracious reading, I simply have no room left on my shelves, and that's that.

Also, I'm too impatient. Why drive to a bookstore when I can download something from the comfort of my living room?

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Justin Nemo

With all this chittle chattle here about best ereader and Kobo this and Nook that, I wonder if anyone buys books in paper anymore?

So what was the last pBook you bought?

Only books where photos or maps are important. The last was a year ago and it was photos by Manuel Bravo.