8 unexpected downsides of the switch to ebooks

[AndrewP]

Keith wrote: "What I really want is a "Buy the physical book, get the ebook for free" option. Or if not free, how about really cheap?"

Baen books does that with many of it's hardbacks. They come complete with a CD.

[Brad]

Aethelberga wrote: "I have found that one real downside to ebooks, is that I now read like I'm a chain smoker. It used to be that I would buy a few books at the bookstore, burn through them and then have to rely on my..."

I completely understand! I used to read 1 book at a time. Now I find myself listening through 1 book, and reading 3 others....with the potential to have a 5th book going too! With the ebooks I find myself buying from Amazon so that I can read on my Kindle, my netbook, or even my phone when I'm out and my Kindle/netbook isn't accessible. There have even been times when my phone is closer to the bed, I reach over, and read a chapter in the middle of the night or when I wake up in the morning! :-P

[Brad]

Alex wrote: "Nobody's mentioned the environmental impacts, though I can't say one way or another whether how damaging the impact of print books are.

Back to the discussion... I mainly like print books because ..."

I can understand wanting a huge library when you're older. I think the huge thing for me is reducing clutter. Most of my movies/tv I've converted, downloaded, or purchased a digital format. All of my music library is digitized now.

When I purchased my Kindle a few years ago, I still had a need for physical books, but as time went on....I don't even want to deal with a physical copy of anything anymore.

[Rob]

When I purchased my Kindle a few years ago, I still had a need for physical books, but as time went on....I don't even want to deal with a physical copy of anything anymore.

I dunno... when my computer's MB died and the whole thing had to go, I did ~NOT~ like the light panic at figuring out how to salvage my library from the old HD's. As it is a ton of my work was on my "back up HD" which is not longer easily accessed by modern mother boards and that data is currently inaccessible.

Game Informer just ran an article, too, about when the power goes out, such as when they shut down Star Wars Galaxies. I have to wonder what's going to happen/ be the norm when places like Amazon decide that they can't offer free storage for files, or Apple decides it's going to turn off it's DRM authenticators.

[terpkristin]

Saw this on Slashdot, it seemed relevant. http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/03/...

I guess some people feel that it's distracting to read on tablets. I admit I haven't read through all the linked articles yet, only skimmed the /. summary.

[Tamahome]

Jonathan Franzen is a Luddite.

[AndrewP]

Interesting that the Slashdot article says it's the publishers that are losing confidence in tablets, not consumers. Have to agree with them though, when doing serious reading on my iPad I shut off WiFi so I do not get IM's or E-mail notifications. An eInk device does not have these issues.

[Rob]

Which is interesting because Leo, on TWiT, was talking up the power of making a tablet book or article because you could tap into those kinds of multi-media experiences. Between YouTube and music sites you could go way beyond just the printed word.