Poll: 3 out of 4 Americans prefer paper books

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by danskmacabre

It's already been mentioned, but in my experience, when talking about Ereaders to friends who have never used one, pretty much ALL of them were vehemently against ereaders, staing the usual reasons why:

1: you can't replace the look and feel of a book
2: I'd hate reading on an ereader
3: It's just "not the same"
4: I'm too old fashioned to use an ereader

and various other reason like that.

However once they actually try one for a bit ( a lot of them got free ereaders with mobile contracts), without exception, for the purposes of reading novels, they now prefer using ereaders by far.

In contrast to this, I have several ladies I know who have e-readers and end up doing most of their reading via paper books. Both who come to mind right away are big library patrons. They got out of the habit briefly when they first got their readers, but soon reverted to library books and paperback sales. The one uses her reader if a book is free or really cheap; the other barely uses it at all. It sits unused most of the time. There's another lady in the same reading group who has mentioned she doesn't use hers but I don't know the details.

For some there is habit involved and perhaps a bit of social reasons (library is familiar, gets them out...they know the librarian...) My neighbor has a Kindle Fire. She never uses it. She's afraid she'll break it (I kid you not.) She won't take it anywhere because "it's expensive and I might lose it or it will get stolen." She does a lot of word games. I've sent her links to those same games (freebies) and books and so on. She has them all loaded faithfully and still buys the paper books with the word games. It just doesn't catch on with some people. She doesn't use her good china either. "It's worth a lot of money. I'm not taking a chance on losing a piece because it gets broken."

There you have it. The human hoarding mind.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by rem736

i completely understand your point. however, what i am going for is this: if you have only read from paper books and have never tried ebooks, then can you with 100% absolute certainty feel that you would not like ebooks over paper? you have to try it out before you can give an honest opinion. that's all.

The opinion is honest as long as the responder is reporting what he or she truly believes. An honest opinion is not the same as an informed opinion.

the survey as it stands says that more people prefer paper books to ebooks. that's legit. i agree. but if we have the crosstabs available to us and there is a category for those who have read regularly from both paper as well as ebooks, then i would suspect that the preference pendulum would swing the other way.

Perhaps; perhaps not. My only real point is that the criticisms of the poll have been based on a myriad of assumptions without one shred of evidence, since no one's looked at the data behind the paywall.

[HomeInMyShoes]

^I prefer to think it's a call to arms for us to spread the word of the joy of e-reading and lobby libraries and other companies (hello Overdrive, I'm looking at you) to make e-reading more accessible to everyone.

I read paper when it makes sense economically and weather-wise here.

[spellbanisher]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

Polls and surveys are generally meaningless. I don't care who likes what just so long as I'm able to do my reading on my choice of format.

My temperament would make me inclined to agree with this sentiment, but the availability of content on my choice of format depends on what other people like. So to some i do care.

[spellbanisher]

I've seen polls on ereaders vs pbooks on many different kinds of sites: history, gaming, news, etc. The 3 to 1 ratio is consistent with my experience. On many of those polls it was more 4 to 1. I don't think this is gonna change. From estimates i've seen the growth of ereader sales have slown significantly, and most people don't prefer to read on their tablets or phones. I don't think ereading will be the revolution many aficionados are hoping for. Instead, more people will continue to favor paper, but the heavy readers will skew towards digital. This will make paper sales and digital sales roughly equivalent even though there will be more pback readers.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

She never uses it. She's afraid she'll break it (I kid you not.) She won't take it anywhere because "it's expensive and I might lose it or it will get stolen."

When I had my Gen3 that cost 350 Euro ($460) that was an issue. It was very annoying to have to be very careful with it and so on. Now when I can buy a new Kindle for around 100 Euro ($150) this is not an issue anymore.

[BearMountainBooks]

I honestly think digital will win out simple because of economics--not because it's better for everyone. While the editing, artwork and overhead of such is by far the largest cost of getting a book to market, with paper books there is still paper and delivery. I think eventually the paper and delivery costs will get so high that people who want to read will find the difference in price...moves them to digital. Right now those costs are all kind of spread out--Amazon covers shipping if you order enough or have prime, B&N does the same, etc.

But eventually, the cost of warehousing books and getting them to a bookstore is going to become costly enough that there will be a benefit/price break for digital that we don't see today. (Well, we do from some publishers.)

Even with print on demand you have the cost of the machines/ink/paper and employees to run the thing and package it. Shipping costs have been doubling and there is no end in sight.

I think we can look to newspapers and see the trend. Less and less people are willing to pay for getting newspapers. Advertisers aren't willing to carry the entire cost either.

Right now we live in a lucky world. We have many, many choices. But even my librarian was lamenting that the more things went digital, the less need there was for librarians. Sure, you need some, but as things are automated, you need less of them.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by tompe

When I had my Gen3 that cost 350 Euro ($460) that was an issue. It was very annoying to have to be very careful with it and so on. Now when I can buy a new Kindle for around 100 Euro ($150) this is not an issue anymore.

I know what you mean. And you have to take that into consideration when you purchase ANY product. I think the reality is that it was never a habit for her. It as never her go-to "thing to do." She likes picking up the pencil and doodling in the margins and so on when it comes to the game.

Younger people who start out more electronically probably won't have the same habits.

[medard]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I honestly think digital will win out simple because of economics--not because it's better for everyone. While the editing, artwork and overhead of such is by far the largest cost of getting a book to market, with paper books there is still paper and delivery.

Remember this thing called E-Mail? That's so much better than snail mail. It's totaly avant-garde. You need to have that. So cool, costs nothing. Just press "Send". Everybody will use this. This will change society.

20 Years later, E-Mails are just spam. Because of economics. Pressing "Send" doesn't cost anything, and nobody reads this stuff.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by medard

Remember this thing called E-Mail? That's so much better than snail mail. It's totaly avant-garde. You need to have that. So cool, costs nothing. Just press "Send". Everybody will use this. This will change society.

20 Years later, E-Mails are just spam. Because of economics. Pressing "Send" doesn't cost anything, and nobody reads this stuff.

And of course, you *never* receive any junk mail in your daily delivery. And of course the U.S. Postal Service is doing just fine. And of course everybody from the U.S. Government down have all gone back to sending out those little rectangles of paper. Yeah.. I can see that email is a dead end. Thanks for pointing that out.

[medard]

If something is important, you send it via snail mail. If your thoughts are worth it, you'll spend some Cents for a stamp.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by medard

If something is important, you send it via snail mail. If your thoughts are worth it, you'll spend some Cents for a stamp.

The only snail mail I've sent in the last 10 years have been legal documents. I still manage to stay in touch with family and friends and businesses with this dead end called email.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by medard

Remember this thing called E-Mail? That's so much better than snail mail. It's totaly avant-garde. You need to have that. So cool, costs nothing. Just press "Send". Everybody will use this. This will change society.

20 Years later, E-Mails are just spam. Because of economics. Pressing "Send" doesn't cost anything, and nobody reads this stuff.

And the US postal system is bankrupt due to lack of snail mail. It only holds together because Congress won't allow it to start shutting pieces of it down.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by medard

If something is important, you send it via snail mail. If your thoughts are worth it, you'll spend some Cents for a stamp.

Nonsense. I send gift cards, touching emails (or so I think!), important updates to family and timely news to friends--and it all goes via email.

I will send a card or letter on rare occasions, usually when a gift if required. My SIL makes hand made cards and I hoard them for these special occasions. I don't send Christmas cards anymore, but I will send off an email wishing people such.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by medard

If something is important, you send it via snail mail. If your thoughts are worth it, you'll spend some Cents for a stamp.

I work from home, and 99% of my mail is electronic. I depend upon email for my livelihood; snail mail not so much.

If it's important, I send it by email. It's faster, cheaper, and much easier to make multiple backups. Also, if it's data, I can send it in a form the receiver can use just by attaching a file.