# Anyone else here NOT a book wonk? (literal printed books, not "books" in a informational sense) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [September 22, 2022, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-here-not-a-book-wonk-literal-printed-books-not-books-in-a-informational-sense/972037 "2022-09-22T15:09:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2022, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-here-not-a-book-wonk-literal-printed-books-not-books-in-a-informational-sense/972037/41 "2022-09-23T16:29:42Z")
And they use a glare-free screen, so it seems more paper-like than tablet screens as well. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2022, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-here-not-a-book-wonk-literal-printed-books-not-books-in-a-informational-sense/972037/42 "2022-09-23T16:46:10Z")
I’m about an 18 book per year reader and I’ve yet to get an ebook reader. I have access to great library resources with long check-out periods so I primarily use that (I try not to buy books unless that it is the only way I can get them). However, I do use the Libby app on my phone and typically have one book checked out that I read when I don’t have a physical book available (sitting forever waiting for a doctor for example). When we retire, we are most likely moving to a location that won’t have the same level of library services so I’ll probably make the switch then. Plus, I imagine I’ll at least double my reading time. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2022, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-here-not-a-book-wonk-literal-printed-books-not-books-in-a-informational-sense/972037/43 "2022-09-23T16:50:32Z")
All my life I thought of myself as a book person. I bought lots of them, I went to new and used bookstores all the time, etc. I loved books. But to quote myself from four years ago: > [@Do you like print books?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/54): > > Owning lots of paper books is just lovely, UNTIL IT’S TIME TO MOVE! Speaking as someone who owns a couple thousand paper volumes, and who has just moved from a very large house with lots of built-in bookcases to a much smaller one with no built-ins (until we finish the basement), I have, for the first time in my life, begun to rethink my attachment to paper books. > > Yes, they look nice on the shelves. Yes, they are impressive to visitors. Yes, they feel nice and smell nice (mostly). And yes, they serve as a kind of portrait of you and your interests throughout your life. (For me, this is the real reason I am so reluctant to get rid of them.) > > But let’s face it: if you own, say, 2,000 volumes, how often do you actually go back to reread or even briefly refer to any one book? How many have you read once, put on the shelf, and never touched again? How many have you started and never finished? How many have you bought and never even read? > > On this last move we used movers, so I didn’t personally carry those 70 fifty-pound boxes of books from the house to the van or from the van into the new house (in the July heat). But I packed them all myself, and I’ll be moving them from the garage and unpacking them when we eventually get the shelf space. And it’s not as easy for me at 63 as it was when I was 53, or 43, or 23. > > If you’re lucky enough, as we were, to have space for your books, and your if life is stable enough that you aren’t likely to have to move (ours wasn’t), there may be little downside to owning a big private library. But my wife and I are less than a decade from retiring, and at that time will probably move to an even smaller house or condo. So the cons of owning lots of books are beginning to outweigh the pros, for me. Since I wrote that, we’ve moved once again, to an even smaller house with much, much less shelf space for books than our last place. We gave away fully half of our 2,200 books before we moved last year, and yet only a small fraction of those we kept are shelved here in the small cottage that we’re sharing with my mother-in-law. The rest remained boxed up in off-site storage. I bought a Kindle 13 years ago, but I haven’t used it since getting my first Android tablet shortly after that. People complain about the glare, etc., but it doesn’t bother me that much, and the convenience of using the same device I use for most of my Web browsing completely overshadows that slight issue. I don’t expect to buy a new paper book ever again, and the only book I might conceivably see myself buying would be something rare and very important to me, although I can’t think of any possibilities at the moment. As I’ve aged, the importance of owning “stuff” has dramatically declined. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2022, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-here-not-a-book-wonk-literal-printed-books-not-books-in-a-informational-sense/972037/44 "2022-09-23T17:13:37Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > I don’t expect to buy a new paper book ever again, and the only book I might conceivably see myself buying would be something rare and very important to me, although I can’t think of any possibilities at the moment. As I’ve aged, the importance of owning “stuff” has dramatically declined. I have a few signed copies of some books, and if I get into another author enough to go to a book signing, (I don’t know where I’d go, all the bookstores that I have gone to signings at in the past are now closed) then I’d like to have a book on hand for that. Signing the Kindle just isn’t the same thing. But that copy is going up on my shelf, and I’ll read it on my Kindle. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2022, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-here-not-a-book-wonk-literal-printed-books-not-books-in-a-informational-sense/972037/45 "2022-09-23T18:00:47Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Do any other avid readers not have any printed book nostalgia and are embracing modern e-readers like I am? Or am I a total weirdo outlier here? Personally, I prefer readers to have a resolution of at least 300dpi so the text does not look like shit. Do not get the absolute crappiest e-reader. Sometimes new bookstores still open, incidentally: > **[A beautiful new bookstore just opened in Park Slope](https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/a-beautiful-new-bookstore-just-opened-in-park-slope-081922)** > > It's called Troubled Sleep and offers new and used titled. > [@k9bfriender](#): > > But that copy is going up on my shelf, and I’ll read it on my Kindle. I was just thinking that if I had a valuable first edition, I would not jam it into my bag or take it to the beach. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-here-not-a-book-wonk-literal-printed-books-not-books-in-a-informational-sense/972037/46 "2022-09-26T14:07:25Z")
> [@peedin](#): > > As a horse owner and a retired hospital librarian, I can safely say neither stables nor hospitals want your used books. Hospitals are paranoid about germ transmission, and horse crazy kids don’t read. My barn had piles of horse books and magazines that gathered dust until they were pitched. > > Send your books to [betterworldbooks.com](http://betterworldbooks.com). Address at the website. I kind of figured no one would want them. I don’t think there are many kids that read for enjoyment anymore. I’ll check out the link. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-here-not-a-book-wonk-literal-printed-books-not-books-in-a-informational-sense/972037/47 "2022-09-26T14:34:04Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > I don’t think there are many kids that read for enjoyment anymore. I think there are still a significant number of kids who enjoy reading. What I suspect there are very few of nowadays are kids, and adults, who read books just to pass the time, because they can’t find anything else to do. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2022, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-here-not-a-book-wonk-literal-printed-books-not-books-in-a-informational-sense/972037/48 "2022-09-30T15:12:09Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Years ago, they sold the [Kindle DX](https://www.amazon.com/Kindle-DX-Wireless-Reader-3G-Global/dp/B002GYWHSQ) with a 9.7" display. I imagine they could start making a larger e-reader again, if they thought there was enough demand for it. And, today I see that Amazon is coming out with a new “[Kindle Scribe](https://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Kindle-Scribe-the-first--Kindle-for--reading--and-writing/dp/B09BS26B8B/ref=sr_1_1?crid=SAD12V6WXJ9R&keywords=kindle+scribe&qid=1664550666&s=amazon-devices&sprefix=kindle+scribe%2Camazon-devices%2C93&sr=1-1)” with a 10.2" display. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2022, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-here-not-a-book-wonk-literal-printed-books-not-books-in-a-informational-sense/972037/49 "2022-09-30T19:09:39Z")
Thanks to this thread I have purchased a Kindle Paperwhite Signature with 32GB of storage. Amazon owes you all a cut of that purchase. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2022, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-here-not-a-book-wonk-literal-printed-books-not-books-in-a-informational-sense/972037/50 "2022-09-30T20:02:15Z")
I read paper-based books more out of some sort of inertia combined with a disinterest in having another device, though I suppose I could just access the stuff via a laptop. I do have maybe 10 or 15 favourites that I reread, and I wouldn’t not want them as books. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2022, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-here-not-a-book-wonk-literal-printed-books-not-books-in-a-informational-sense/972037/51 "2022-10-07T00:07:41Z")
There’s a lot to be said for having a stash of “dead tree” books and being able to pick one up at random and start flipping through it. Also good when doing lookups as it’s somewhat easier to flip back and forth between different sections. Libraries have a better selection of real books than of ebooks (and the publishers’ scummy limits on lending of same). Studying is harder on an ebook than a real book - can’t jot notes as easily etc. All that said - about the only time I buy a real book is when I visit a really nice bookstore - and I want to make purchases to keep them in business. I’ve been known to buy a book there - then later acquire an electronic version either from the library, or by purchase. Since I had cataract surgery 4 years back, it’s just so much EASIER to deal with the Kindle. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-here-not-a-book-wonk-literal-printed-books-not-books-in-a-informational-sense/972037.md?page=2)