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A human heart posted:He was correct, ebooks are stupid gimmicks. Uhhhhhhhh what?
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Feb 9, 2018 00:06
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While I wouldn't call ebooks "gimmicks," their sales have dropped quite a bit year-over-year and print sales have increased during the same period.
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Feb 9, 2018 00:10
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E-books are in a mini slump but audio-book sales are exploding.
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Feb 9, 2018 00:34
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SSJ_naruto_2003 posted:Uhhhhhhhh what? It's A Human Heart, just walk away.
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Feb 9, 2018 00:38
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Ccs posted:E-books are in a mini slump but audio-book sales are exploding. *publisher-released e-books
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Feb 9, 2018 00:45
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ToxicFrog posted:It's A Human Heart, just walk away. My opinions are real and genuine, and to dismiss them out of hand is intellectual cowardice
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Feb 9, 2018 01:09
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Personally I think it’s pretty cool and good to log on to my library’s website and be like, “oh cool, a Culture book I haven’t read yet,” and then be reading it on my kindle literally 2 minutes later. That said, when I actually want to buy a book I go for a physical copy, so maybe I’m part of the problem.
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Feb 9, 2018 02:29
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Cpt. Mahatma Gandhi posted:Personally I think it’s pretty cool and good to log on to my library’s website and be like, “oh cool, a Culture book I haven’t read yet,” and then be reading it on my kindle literally 2 minutes later. I don't see a problem in buying books.
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Feb 9, 2018 03:10
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StrixNebulosa posted:I don't see a problem in buying books. I meant the problem of ebook sales slumping (if you even want to call it a problem)
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Feb 9, 2018 03:56
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I'd say Bradbury came out correct concerning the ephemeral nature of ebook v book. Especially considering quote:Recently Kindle owners who had purchased George Orwell's 1984 or Animal Farm had their books snatched back by Amazon when a rights issue arose. The buyers were credited their $9.99, but such a recall could never have happened with actual books
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Feb 9, 2018 04:06
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I have a tiny house with no space for more physical books but plenty of space on my Kindle for as many eBooks as I want so I am down with this gimmick.
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Feb 9, 2018 05:36
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I definitely buy fewer ebooks than I did a year or two ago. Mostly because the price of new ebooks has gone up about 50%. I have a strict "one in one out" policy on hardcopy books now. withak fucked around with this message at 05:46 on Feb 9, 2018 |
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Feb 9, 2018 05:43
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The arguments for e-readers and e-books are dumb things like 'convenience' and 'storage' and 'accessibility' and 'never running out of stock ever' and the arguments for honest god-fearing non-demonic paper books are much more tangible things like 'enjoying the smell of deforestation' and 'liking the feel of dead trees rubbing against one's palms' and 'wanting to die by drowning in a sea of one's own faeces stained book collection'.
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Feb 9, 2018 05:43
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The only physical books I buy anymore are small paperbacks I can take into a no-electronics facility and read on the shitter
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Feb 9, 2018 06:03
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Dominoes posted:how are people torn from a spacecraft in an explosion not all gravitationally bound to the same body? Because otherwise John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon couldn't have made Dark Star. A world without Bradbury is a world without Halloween and Return of the Living Dead, think about that for a moment.
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Feb 9, 2018 13:03
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papa horny michael posted:I'd say Bradbury came out correct concerning the ephemeral nature of ebook v book. That's an argument against buying ebooks (or other digital goods) from lovely companies with a hard-on for DRM, not an argument against ebooks as a format.
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Feb 9, 2018 13:08
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Mostly these days if I'm buying a physical book it's an illustrated or annotated edition. For example, the New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: http://books.wwnorton.com/books/The-New-Annotated-Sherlock-Holmes/ A perfect edition of this month's book of the month selection: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3848449
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Feb 9, 2018 13:10
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Mostly these days if I'm buying a physical book it's an illustrated or annotated edition. Same. Nice volume, btw. I have this one. I want this one.
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Feb 9, 2018 16:29
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Along this tangent...I've been buying the occasional book from the Folio Society for their special bindings and illustrations. What other publishers offer similar "upscale" bound versions of classic literature?
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Feb 9, 2018 20:28
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Dadbod Apocalypse posted:Along this tangent...I've been buying the occasional book from the Folio Society for their special bindings and illustrations. What other publishers offer similar "upscale" bound versions of classic literature? Centipede Press does a lot of real nice SFF books
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Feb 9, 2018 20:30
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Dadbod Apocalypse posted:Along this tangent...I've been buying the occasional book from the Folio Society for their special bindings and illustrations. What other publishers offer similar "upscale" bound versions of classic literature? Easton Press is a good one. As is the aforementioned Centipede, but they are often really expensive, even compared to Folio and Easton. For reference, the Folio Edition of Dune is $135; the Centipede edition due out later this year will be $295. (Edit: Centipede also does a lot of mystery book, like Fredric Brown and Jim Thompson.) There are also an infinite number of micropresses that will do very fine editions of public domain books. If you're really interested in digging in here, I recommend the Small Press Limited Book Collectors group on Facebook. Ornamented Death fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Feb 9, 2018 |
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Feb 9, 2018 20:55
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I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that e-books are a fad that won't last out the year.
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Feb 9, 2018 23:23
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Subterranean Press also does some limited/signed editions of SFF stuff. Centipede man...I was just browsing their site a bit and you gotta jump on something that interests you, it won't be around for long. Anyway though I loves my ebooks and I loves my print books. Ebooks I tend to get on sale, if I'm buying new it's usually a print book. I suppose that could contribute to the profitability of ebooks decreasing, but I very much doubt they'll vanish. It's possible that a reasonable number of people (I know a couple) decided to downsize their libraries and replace them with digital versions of things they would always want to have available but didn't necessarily want taking up space in their homes. This would create a bump in initial sales that would then even out--similar things happened when people ditched cassettes for CDs and to a much more limited degree when blu-ray was released over DVD. I also would not expect magazines and comics to make a print comeback--not that they're gone obviously, but the digital format works very well for a lot of them and they suffer even more from the 'clutter' issue when trying to store or deal with older ones. I haven't bought a physical comic book in years, though I do buy the occasional nice hardbound collected edition.
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Feb 9, 2018 23:57
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Thank you for all the suggestions about specialty presses. I'll keep my eyes out for sales (Folio has them a couple times a year), but I doubt there will be many bargains at these outfits due to the limited runs.
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Feb 10, 2018 01:57
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I exclusively buy e-books now, to the point where I've never finished the Culture series because there's no legit way to get an ebook of Excession in the USA. I'll glad pay an extra bit over the cost of a hardcopy for the convenience of ebook storage, transportation, and the massively improved ease of reading. I love not having to deal with three inch doorstoppers anymore. I love being able to read in a dimly lit room without loving around with lamps or lights. I love not having to haul multiple books around just because I'm nearing the end of my current book. I love not worrying about accidentally damaging the book. Basically, ebooks are superior to physical books in drat near every single way when it comes to non-reference books.
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Feb 10, 2018 09:11
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Storage is a major concern- I already have twice as many books as I can shelve, and that was after a clear out. Mostly though, it's price. I'm buying ebooks at £2-£5 when hard copies are in the £7-£20 range, it's not even remotely comparable.
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Feb 10, 2018 16:26
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I don’t even care about storage. Paper books are just too impractical to handle. Kindle is way better, especially if you like being comfortable while you read. I only buy textbooks and work related stuff in physical form so I don’t doze off over the boring bits. The book is text, not its material form.
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Feb 10, 2018 16:43
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I find I don't read hardcopy books anymore even if I buy them. I like to read out and about (at work, while commuting, etc) and books just get too ratty when you're taking hem everywhere. Even if I make a start on one at home, I end up getting engrossed with whatever I've got on ebook because I can read it everywhere and so just read my ebooks everywhere.
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Feb 10, 2018 17:01
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I’ll buy nice books like the LBJ bio series in paper but I’ll be god damned if I’m going to keep nine million pages of Expanse books on an entire row of my bookshelf, that poo poo is eminently disposable.
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Feb 10, 2018 17:01
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I mostly like the ability to make the font bigger cause sometimes books are printed a lil too tiny for comfort.
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Feb 10, 2018 17:13
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My books cost nothing and are stored on the shelves of the local library.
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Feb 10, 2018 17:35
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I only read from clay tablets, LOL at your ephemeral media choices.
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Feb 10, 2018 18:15
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I exclusively read pirated epubs, like a true cyberpunk.
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Feb 10, 2018 22:34
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Zartosht posted:I exclusively read pirated epubs, like a true cyberpunk. I'm just poor 
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Feb 10, 2018 22:38
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Zartosht posted:I exclusively read pirated epubs, like a true cyberpunk. i have lost three kindles last year. pirated books are too annoying to reconstitute on a new device.
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Feb 11, 2018 01:34
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:I don’t even care about storage. Paper books are just too impractical to handle. Kindle is way better, especially if you like being comfortable while you read. I only buy textbooks and work related stuff in physical form so I don’t doze off over the boring bits. The book is text, not its material form. What if my idea of comfort is a hot bath, hmmm? Really I like physical books because it's a break from looking at a screen, which makes my brain feel like it's doing something new and different.
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Feb 11, 2018 01:45
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branedotorg posted:i have lost three kindles last year. pirated books are too annoying to reconstitute on a new device. Maybe don't lose your devices so often...? Sorry if that's mean but I've honestly never had that problem. 
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Feb 11, 2018 02:34
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Nothing beats having the next few books in my queue ready to go on the Kindle when I finish one in the middle of taking the subway, but ebooks aren't good for browsing. As my kids have gotten old enough to have an interest in the same sci-fi books I like, I've been repurchasing some ebooks in physical form, because they spend time browsing our bookshelves around the house, finding books that interest them, but they're never going to browse my Kindle and come across something new and interesting that way.
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Feb 11, 2018 02:45
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branedotorg posted:i have lost three kindles last year. pirated books are too annoying to reconstitute on a new device. What? Just download Calibre or something and keep everything in a library on your PC.
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Feb 11, 2018 06:27
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Zartosht posted:Maybe don't lose your devices so often...? Sorry if that's mean but I've honestly never had that problem. The street finds its own uses for things.
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Feb 11, 2018 06:53
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