Did anyone actually defect to ebooks from hardcovers?

[TallMomof2]

For many years I purchased paperbacks but as my eyesight deteriorated I switched to hard covers but only new at a substantial discount or used. Nowadays I only purchase ebooks for my fiction needs. Non-fiction is a little different. I may be willing to pay full price if it's a book that I highly covet but for the most part I've switched to digital versions.

I'd rather buy direct from the author so that hopefully the author would receive more compensation.

[Harry001]

i mostly read e-books, but also like to read a new hardcover book.

wil get two new hardcovers for christmas

new york - the novel from rutherford
and
under the dome from sk

keep reading
harry

[Robertb]

Dear All:

OK, I am biased. I work for Astak and Astak makes eBook Readers. What I noticed years ago at my house was my beautiful hardcover library filled up my bookshelves, spilled into boxes in every cabinet in the house, and started ending up in the attic.

I very frequently like to re-read books. I got SO tired of hunting the bookshelf, the cabinets and the attic to find a great book to reread... only to find my spouse threw it out. Now, with the Astak Pocket PRO holding up to 8,000 eBooks.... I read, put them in folders, and find them in seconds.

Plus I am well aware of the harm that the bleaching of paper (trees are not white pulp) and the clogging of landfill in California causes. So, why go back to hunting through endless boxes when I can carry every book with me everywhere!!

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear All:

OK, I am biased. I work for Astak and Astak makes eBook Readers. What I noticed years ago at my house was my beautiful hardcover library filled up my bookshelves, spilled into boxes in every cabinet in the house, and started ending up in the attic.

I very frequently like to re-read books. I got SO tired of hunting the bookshelf, the cabinets and the attic to find a great book to reread... only to find my spouse threw it out. Now, with the Astak Pocket PRO holding up to 8,000 eBooks.... I read, put them in folders, and find them in seconds.

I'm in similar position, with books in an offsite storage facility as well. I did triage, and stored offsite stuff I wasn't likely to want to reread.

But ebooks haven't stopped me from buying hardcovers. Some books I want in that format. Where ebooks might well cut into paper book sales is mass market paperbacks.

And I, too, like having a library in my pocket. My device is a PDA, and there are about 3,700 volumes in several formats spread over two 2GB SD cards. A reader isn't a solution for me. I need color support, and a device that does other things besides view books.

For me, ebooks are an additional format, not a replacement.

Plus I am well aware of the harm that the bleaching of paper (trees are not white pulp) and the clogging of landfill in California causes. So, why go back to hunting through endless boxes when I can carry every book with me everywhere!!

Unless you can find other things to use for activities like wiping after you go to the bathroom, paper isn't going away any time soon. I'd push for newspapers going electronic as a good way to cut down paper usage, but that's happening as a side effect of economics, not environmental concerns.

And trees are renewable resources, paper can be (and is) recycled, and paper waste is bio degradable. I'd actually be more upset at the environmental impact of semi-conductor manufacturing than I am about the effects of making paper.
______
Dennis

[jaxx6166]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

I bought and still buy occasional hardcovers, if a book is one I want in hardcover I'll get it that way. It's paperback sales that ebooks have cannibalized here.

I'm the same way. There's some hardbacks that I just **HAVE** to have in my collection. And I'll spring for them. Everything else is pretty much ebook. If I was going to buy the book in hardcover though but wasn't too keen on actually having the physical copies anymore (Read: SM Stirling and Terry Brooks books) then I just bought eBook versions of them.

Which was a bit of shell shock to me, because up until Genesis 3 I had purchased just about every Shannara h/c (with the exception of the original trilogy)

And I'm the type of person to have multiple copies of the same book. Just because I'm weird like that.

Before eBooks were making headway in the market, I would purchase the hardcover for my collection and the paperback to read. But now the portability of ebooks has just made it so much better...

And now I find myself purchasing ebook versions of books I'd never have thought to purchase in any other format. Patient Zero, Acacia, Under the Dome, and a couple indie authors (whose paperbacks were listed at a staggering 29.95 MSRP!) are examples of that.

Some books I actually have in H/C, Paperback, and Electronic. Which reminds me...I've got some dead trees to buy =)

[demoric]

I usually purchase hardcovers at full price, but I only purchase a hardcover after reading a paperback or ebook. I still enjoy having nice hardback novels and I even recently spent $80 some on the "The Lord of the Rings". I have it in paperback, ebook, and hardback.

Ever since I had made the change to digital reading I read more, and buy more. In the past I only purchased a paperback used or borrowed one from a friend or the library if I liked it I would buy a hardback or if one wasn't available I'd get a paperback.

Now-a-days if there is a book I am interested in I will buy an ebook instead of borrowing or 2nd hand. I have enjoyed ebooks to such an extent that now I will wait until an ebook is released or just find a different novel.

Lastly, a shameless plug for a great book http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/

[AprilHare]

I don't know about hardcovers -> ebooks (never could afford hardcovers in general), but I did purchase a hardcover today: Giancoli, Physics, Fifth Ed. - my old tattered paperback copy deserved a break

[tyche]

I still buy Book Club editions of my favorite authors because I like their size; slightly smaller than a standard hard cover edition but big enough to read easily.

[rleguillow]

I buy hardbacks new. I buy them used. I get them from libraries and from used book stores and as gifts.
I buy ebooks new, too - and sometimes I buy ebooks at the same time as I buy the hardback, so the publishers sure are not losing by me! I've got carpal tunnel - some books, like Gabaldon's latest, or King's latest, I simply can't hold to read. I ahve the hardbacks of both. I also have Gabaldon's in ebook, and will get King's as soon as its released, so I can read it. I love my book-lined walls, and on rainy boring days I love to browse through my library, pull out this book or that one, and settle in with an old friend. But ebooks are certainly convenient, easy to hold, easy to transport, so I like them too. I'd say maybe 15% of my ebooks, I also have in hardback. Perhaps another 2 or 3% in paperback.
And just to make the mix interesting, I also get audiobooks. Since I listen to audiobooks while driving, sewing, or (for really repetitive tasks) working, I don't really focus on them, so I only get audiobooks of books I've already read. That way if I'm distracted and miss bits, I don't lose the story.
That means I do actually have books in hardback, ebook AND audiobook format.

To me, what format I choose to read at the moment is very dependent on my situation at the moment. The publishers do not lose a cent on me because of ebooks.

[Tattncat]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear All:

OK, I am biased. I work for Astak and Astak makes eBook Readers. What I noticed years ago at my house was my beautiful hardcover library filled up my bookshelves, spilled into boxes in every cabinet in the house, and started ending up in the attic.

I very frequently like to re-read books. I got SO tired of hunting the bookshelf, the cabinets and the attic to find a great book to reread... only to find my spouse threw it out. Now, with the Astak Pocket PRO holding up to 8,000 eBooks.... I read, put them in folders, and find them in seconds.

Plus I am well aware of the harm that the bleaching of paper (trees are not white pulp) and the clogging of landfill in California causes. So, why go back to hunting through endless boxes when I can carry every book with me everywhere!!

I'm with you.

[cyclekitty]

Ok, I guess I am the only person in America to completely defect from hardcover to digital, I was a very early digital adopter, think palm 7, in the past few years with e-ink readers I have completely given up my monthly book clubs and now only purchase digital, I have sold, donated, given away my enormous hardcover library, except for leather bound collections of the classics, I have not purchased a hardcover since I purchased my sony 505, and with the help of calibre, I am getting my huge digital collection sorted and converted.

Sony, PRS600
BeBook
Netbook,
Palm Pre,
Anxiously awaiting, new Iliad,

[Crowl]

I hardly ever bought any hardback books, an obvious example would be the latest discworld novels and in that case I ended up buying the ebook version and later buying a signed hardback edition, so a gain of sales from me.

[Tim32127]

I buy around 20 to 25 books a year. Half of them are new hardcovers mostly in the epic fantasy genre. I bought my sony reader so I could replace my library with ebooks. It has been a pain in the butt finding copys of the books I want to keep but I'm getting there. In responce to the question yes I will stop buying hardcovers and just get the ebook when they start releasing them closer to the hardcovers.
Tim