Whichever is longer

[aesmael]

    Been spending a lot of time lately reading this thread at Making Light, which began by talking about an overzealous attempt to remove copyrighted material from a website and turned to copyright itself.
    On the topic of free electronic copies and what effect they have on sales a number of people spoke up enumerating their experiences with downloaded e-texts, legal and not and how those have affected their purchasing habits. Most claimed their sampling of electronic text convinced them the paper version was worth purchasing, often along with other works by the author.
    I cannot recall if it specifically came up in this conversation but I recall many times people expressing the sentiment that e-books (will I settle on a term? no! well, maybe) drive the sale of dead tree books because the latter has qualities superior to and unreplicable by the former.
    In my opinion the reason paper volumes are preferred over electronic texts is because of 1) the current low quality of the technology and the commensurately poor reading experience and 2) the fact that the currently purchasing public has grown up with paper books. They have a resonance and history with us which is simply not shared by an e-book. Not once have I ever enjoyed the scent of one, for example.
    As technology improves and subsequent generations become less nostalgic about books-as-we-know-them I suspect people will be more likely to choose an electronic text over a paper one.
    There is also, which I have seen mentioned only once and not in that particular conversation, the effect on people's ability to sustain concentration of having so much material to read, so easily switched between. I would not dare to venture an informed opinion on this subject (Oh, but when do I ever?) but I will not that it has always been easy to put a book down and do something other than reading, for as much or as little time as one has available. It has not, however, been so easy to jump between such a vast amount of written material unless one has a truly spectacular library.

Comments

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

And the most important reason of all to own a book: It's nearly impossible to hold your laptop in the bath : )

[whimsical-esper.livejournal.com]

Hah! Very true, I did not think of this.

~S

[syntaxia.livejournal.com]

I've always thought the preference for paper books was purely because of our habits, but I think you have a point here that it's also connected with the unsatisfactory level of technology.

Hmmm. I can imagine enjoying a reading experience on some kind of thin tablet-like screen that is easily to manipulate, is not afraid of having dinner spilled on it, and doesn't hurt my eyes with artificial brightness.

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

...and can be safely dropped into water without electrocuting the user? That also has a screen that can display a page of text large enough that you don't sprain yout thumb hitting "Next Page" every two or three lines? And how about that elusive "library smell" that is so evocative when you hold an old book?

[syntaxia.livejournal.com]

Now, I think that "library smell" will be the new bestseller in the house fragrance range :) I'd personally go for the "new paperback" fragrance, although let's not forget the old favourite "bad quality ink, still wet" smell ;P

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

And it'll be distributed in perefume atomisers instead of aerosol cans?

[syntaxia.livejournal.com]

Actually, I was thinking it'd be made of scented cardboard in the shape of a spruce tree, painted garish green open book.

And you could even use it as a bookmark! That would be a winner, a bookmark with the real "new book" smell!

Oh wait, the whole point was that there wouldn't be any books anymore...

;P

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

They'd have to make the reader with a hinge so that you could close it with the bookmark marking your place. In reality the bookmark would store a hyperlink marking the spot you stopped reading so that when you open the reader next time the text would jump to where you were last time (unless the bateries wore out in the meantime...dammit, I left my book unplugged!)

[aesmael.livejournal.com]

That and, having actual pages which can be turned. Perhaps it is still the heritage of my book-reading youth holding out but I would prefer a book made of electronic paper so it can display any story and illustrations I might want, but do it in a format which can be read like a book. And, yes, it had better be waterproof. Although books are not exactly waterproof, they do at least not kill you.

[lost-angelwings.livejournal.com]

You can also enjoy paper books rly newhere and sometimes it's peaceful not having to bring a PDA or Laptop around to sit under a tree and read :D