Will e-book readers make your library obsolete?

[desertgrandma]

We were offered the Arizona Republic, Friday Saturday and Sunday edition for $52 per year. This is the largest paper in Arizona.

Tried it for a year, couldn't wait for the year to end. The paper usually went into the recycle without being read.

I can read it online, comment online, see the ads online,

and I hate their anti-Sheriff Joe bias, as well as many other of their policys.

So, if you can read a newspaper online, ANY newspaper, just about anywhere in the world, why would you want the paper version?

By the time the thing hits the door, the news is obsolete.

[Moejoe]

I'm in the UK and I can't remember the last time I bought a newspaper, or magazine for that matter. None of my close friends buy newspapers or magazines either. Just seems like such a redundant practice with the wealth of information available on the web.

[YGG-]

Originally Posted by giddion

Actually they are looking at ways e-liminate those [i.e. bank notes] too, some places in the US are starting to follow a trend that is prevalent in Japan and allowing you to make purchases with your cell phone.

Actually Finland (Nokia country) is much more advanced on this; you can routinely buy from a vending machine (coffe, etc.) or pay in shops with your mobile/cell phone.
In France you can now show your train ticket for control on your mobile/cell phone (after buying it on the web of course).

[YGG-]

I will probably, eventually port my pbooks to my 'liseuse', as I ported all my CD's to iTunes... but
a) As Zelda mentioned earlier, many books aren't available yet (remember when you couldn't seem to be able to find your favorite old R&R music in CD format?) --there will be a transition, (& I've been collecting books since the '60s --including some still perfectly functional paperbacks, Zelda! Not the 'j'ai lu' though )
b) Maybe I'm an old dinosaur but I still buy CDs (& DVDs); I like to have them under my very eyes...
c) One of the reasons why I want this is, I'm a visual person, when I look for a singer or a song title, it's easier for me to glance at my library and spot the CD i'm looking for (while the name may escape my mind... you'll see when you're as old as I am ) (I've got 1000+ of them... can't remember them all!)
d) Which brings me back to books: I need to have my library in front of me, all those books bindings I know, in order to browse & find... (I'm aware there's a new, modern thing called Google & I use it a lot, thanks )
c) Which brings me forward to my next point (sorry guys): my work implies doing research in books, being able to have three or four of them open at the same time on the same table to try & compare, connect or discriminate ideas that are present there... paperbooks do it better so far;
d) (BTW I write a lot & always write with a pen & paper, usually starting with a mindmap on an A2 piece of paper... no 20" screen is about to give me the comfort & ease I have now, yet)
c) And I love my CyBook, and it's not going to replace my library in any forseeable future.

[ebookqueen]

I am definitely replacing my paper books with ebooks and here's why:

1. I have 4 bookcases in a tiny apartment. I need more room for my other junk. I got stuff piled to the ceiling because I just don't have room.

2. I don't have time to dust my books. Ebooks means you just dust your ebook reader occasionally...much simpler.

3. I have books I've never read because although I have time to read them on the bus, it is not practical for me to carry them (can you say back pain?).

4. I have to read stuff for work and I read for enjoyment, so at any given time I can be reading multiple books in a day. My back won't allow me to carry 1 hardcover book in addition to my netbook (which I need for work). Forget about carrying multiple books.

I plan to only keep anything I would consider collectible and sell everything else. When you don't have enough space, freeing up space is a liberating thing.

Donna

[ChipnDale]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

How about

"NO, e-books and paper books can co-exist beautifully"?

Agreed, I voted for the only "no" vote available but this option is more accurate for me. I read some books in e-book format but I also want physical copies of certain books (I still have childhood pop-up books that cannot be made into e-book format and other books that I just want physical copies of for my personal collection).

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by giddion

You are correct and that will be the end of ebooks as we know them, it will be the prefect DRM, a single use ebook with the content burned into an IC chip so it can't be copied.

Umm you realize that if it can be deciphered to send to a screen - then it is in a perfectly copyable form in the video buffer right? The only way to make it uncopyable - is to make it unviewable.

[RWood]

As mentioned elsewhere, I have cleared out over two 6' x 3' bookcases as well as many boxes of books from the basement.

Some years ago I did give my Father-in-law the complete National Geographic on CD and I have the five CD collection of MAD (from the period that I think it was funny.) Both are excellent on the screen and take up very little shelf space.

MaximumPC is now available online as is Linn's Stamp News. Locally, The Washington Times has an excellent online version and the Saturday version is available only online.

[giddion]

Originally Posted by Phogg

Umm you realize that if it can be deciphered to send to a screen - then it is in a perfectly copyable form in the video buffer right? The only way to make it uncopyable - is to make it unviewable.

But if the IC is in a single use or disposable type ebook/ereader then copying would involve opening the unit and soldering some sort of cable or something to the chip. While this doesn't technically qualify as 'uncopyable' it does put the copying outside the capabilities of the average user.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by giddion

But if the IC is in a single use or disposable type ebook/ereader then copying would involve opening the unit and soldering some sort of cable or something to the chip. While this doesn't technically qualify as 'uncopyable' it does put the copying outside the capabilities of the average user.

Limited use sales have been tried over and over in the market place - and generally failed unless they are so cheap as to be of negligible cost.

It would be a good reminder to look at Hollywood's attempt to sell the original DiVX discs in the late 1990s. That went over like the lead balloon that the concept was and is.

[giddion]

Originally Posted by Phogg

Limited use sales have been tried over and over in the market place - and generally failed unless they are so cheap as to be of negligible cost.

I agree 100% but my comment was based on my agreement that at some point ereaders would meet that exact price point. My answer was a prediction of the downside that would coincide with that price point.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by RWood

Some years ago I did give my Father-in-law the complete National Geographic on CD and I have the five CD collection of MAD (from the period that I think it was funny.) Both are excellent on the screen and take up very little shelf space.

I look forward to doing that someday with my subscriptions to various magazines... being able to dump boxes of packed magazines, and being able to access those articles at any time, in seconds, would be well worth it.

[Indigo Ink]

I love ebooks and the freeing of storage space and removal of dust which comes with them and I know pbooks eventually wither away with age, but somehow, I still find software as a medium too ephermal and constantly have a fear of loosing books if they are only software (computer/device crash). I know Kindle allows you to store your purchases online...but they are DRMed. Add to the dreaded DRM, changing media formats - it would mean either rebuying your books every few years or risk loosing them (remember VHS). So I guess what I am saying is that I can't let go of my pbooks just as yet (My second track is telling me Just hear yourself - paranoid and possessive) - I guess this second whatever guy is right!!).

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

I look forward to doing that someday with my subscriptions to various magazines... being able to dump boxes of packed magazines, and being able to access those articles at any time, in seconds, would be well worth it.

I used to save magazines... but I realized I never ever went back to them. So, they ended up in the recycle bin. I basically cut down to 0 mag subs now. I can read most of that stuff on line. I mostly subscribed to programming and PC mags.

Now, I only get 1 a month. It is the AOPA mag that you get with membership. If they gave an electronic edition option I would go with that. After I read it I drop it right into the bin. Although I think I can read back issue articles online.

BOb

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

I look forward to doing that someday with my subscriptions to various magazines... being able to dump boxes of packed magazines, and being able to access those articles at any time, in seconds, would be well worth it.

In research and academy I believe paper subscriptions to journals are dying, we are seeing them more and more being replaced by some kind of internet access. I now have unlimited access to the historical archives of the most important journals in my field and, although I have paper copies of most of them in a room 15 m away from my office, I am glad I can just download the PDFs with a click.

But with a paper journal you can have a quick glance at the articles, watch the graphs and figures, read the titles and maybe find something interesting unexpectedly. With electronic access you mostly only find what you search, so in a way something is lost...