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0 pointssamdk13y ago0 comments

You're understating the benefits and missing a few key ones.

First, the instant purchase ability is extremely important. It means that books gain some measure of equality with other forms of media (the internet, movies/tv, music). With a Kindle I can read whatever book I want whenever I want, which means that I read many more books than I used to.

Second, the mobility advantage isn't slight at all, especially for people who read a lot. If you're never carrying more than a single book around that's one thing, but I read 1-2 books a week, and a lot more (often 5+ a week) if I'm traveling. Even just during my daily commute, it's far easier to read while standing on the subway with a Kindle instead of a book.

Beyond that, I find reading on a Kindle to be far more comfortable than reading a book. The actual reading experience is much nicer than trade paperbacks, which are printed very cheaply. It's much lighter and only requires one hand to hold/turn pages, so I can more easily read while lying down, and the newest version has a very nice backlight, so that I can read in bad lighting.

There are obvious disadvantages, and I absolutely hate that DRM is still a thing, but the benefits absolutely outweigh any possible disadvantages for me. Anecdotally, it's the difference between me reading 5-10 books a year and me reading 50-100 books a year, and I'm a much happier person in the latter state.

Also, if you're not saying something to be rude, you should actually write like that, not add a disclaimer at the top of what you're writing. There were a lot of ways to get the same message across without calling people idiots.

0 comments

run4yourlives13y ago

I'm understating the benefits because I highly doubt the average person is reading anywhere close to what you are reading. Personally, I'm not exactly sure where you are finding the time to read this much, but I digress.

A vast majority of people read one book at a time. Two max. Given this, the idea that there is a massive benefit in portability is completely overstated - few people (outside of students) were carrying ten pounds of books around with them to support their reading habits.

This same line of thinking holds true with purchasing. There is most certainly a convenience in not having to visit a store (or even order online), but most people read at a pace that is fully supportive of being able to find their next read in the traditional manner.

That being said, I recognize these are both advantages. What I'm saying though is that there are very few people where this "advantage" makes any form of economic sense. Assuming your usage, this advantage is costing you $200-$500 a year. And your purchase isn't one of ownership.

The argument for e-books right now is like leasing a car for $50 more a month than you can buy it for. Sure there are advantages to leasing, but logically, they don't come close to outweighing the costs.

samdkOP13y ago

Even for people who don't read as much as I do, I think those benefits exist and that you're understating them. (Especially because my Kindle is part of the reason I read so much, not just the means by which I do it.) A Kindle is still a lot more portable than even a paperback. (I can comfortably fit it in a jacket pocket.) It's still way more convenient to be able to buy books whenever you want than to have to plan a trip to the bookstore or library. It's still a lot nicer of a reading experience than most paperbacks.

Yes, I do spend a lot of money on books every year. When you look at it in context though, that number really isn't crazy, even for something I don't end up owning. Cable TV, a Netflix account, Spotify, and going to the movies once a month are all in the same order of magnitude for similar-ish kinds of things, and you don't end up owning anything as a result of any of those, either. Reading--even when you're buying every book you read--is actually a surprisingly cost-effective means of entertainment.

And there's definitely not a 100% premium compared to me buying the physical books--that's a very silly way to do cost analysis. A sizable percentage of the actual benefit of reading a book is reading it for the first time, so losing access to it later doesn't completely devalue your purchase. Even if you were to factor in the chance of losing access to the books you've spent money on later (which is entirely reasonable), you should also be factoring in the chance that you don't ever lose access to your books. Anecdotally, events like this seem extremely uncommon, and so treating them like a certainty doesn't make much sense.

As I said, I'm not trying to defend Kindle (or any other) DRM here. I'm trying to argue against the idea that people who own and use ebook readers are idiots.

(And as for how I read so much...20 minutes both ways on the subway plus another 3-4 hours throughout the week is easily a book a week for me--I read pretty quickly--and I occasionally just sit down and decide to spend an evening reading instead of doing something else.)

lwat13y ago

Best of both worlds: Order the physical book and download a digital copy from The Pirate Bay.

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