Certain Lines I've Drawn
While I love my Kindle (and I do), I still enjoy reading actual dead trees. A colleague recommended Erik Larson's Devil in the White City yesterday, so I headed over to Amazon.
The trade paperback is priced at $10.85. The Kindle edition? $9.99.
Right now, for me, it's worth 86 cents to hold a copy of the book. I'm not ready to go purely digital. Anyway--if I buy the book, I can pass it on.
Now wait, you say. You can share Kindle books.
Sure.
But here's the digital caveat:
I purchased and downloaded a copy of 30 Days: Jail from iTunes several years ago. I show clips of the episode in class each year while we study justice. When our computer exploded (metaphorically) last summer, I had to reset all the devices on which my iTunes content could be played (I'd maxed out my license, and one of the devices was now dead).
Guess what? 30 Days is no longer available via iTunes. Even though I "own" the digital content, I can't play it.
Digital, it seems, is not forever. In this case, digital is now worth nothing.
This, dear reader, is why I'll pay the 86 cents. Get it to me faster (like the episodes of The Walking Dead I download each week--I don't have cable and the DVDs won't be available for another six months) or cheaper ($2.99 ebooks, anyone), and I'll go digital. Anything else, and I'll stick with a physical copy.
Where's your digital line?
The trade paperback is priced at $10.85. The Kindle edition? $9.99.
Right now, for me, it's worth 86 cents to hold a copy of the book. I'm not ready to go purely digital. Anyway--if I buy the book, I can pass it on.
Now wait, you say. You can share Kindle books.
Sure.
But here's the digital caveat:
I purchased and downloaded a copy of 30 Days: Jail from iTunes several years ago. I show clips of the episode in class each year while we study justice. When our computer exploded (metaphorically) last summer, I had to reset all the devices on which my iTunes content could be played (I'd maxed out my license, and one of the devices was now dead).
Guess what? 30 Days is no longer available via iTunes. Even though I "own" the digital content, I can't play it.
Digital, it seems, is not forever. In this case, digital is now worth nothing.
This, dear reader, is why I'll pay the 86 cents. Get it to me faster (like the episodes of The Walking Dead I download each week--I don't have cable and the DVDs won't be available for another six months) or cheaper ($2.99 ebooks, anyone), and I'll go digital. Anything else, and I'll stick with a physical copy.
Where's your digital line?
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