# Do you like print books? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 15, 2018, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631 "2018-08-15T02:24:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Mr.Bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mr.Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Bill)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/61 "2018-08-16T23:58:07Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Fortunately, bookstores are doing ok. > > From [here.](https://www.npr.org/2018/03/29/598053563/why-the-number-of-independent-bookstores-increased-during-the-retail-apocalypse) > > Sure you can find anything on Amazon, if you think to search for it or if Amazon recommends it to you. But only in bookstores do you fortuitously stumble over something you had no idea existed. > Like the Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me crossword puzzle book I found in a bookstore on the Haight a few weeks ago. That’s good news. And that is what I like about bookstores. Especially used bookstores with lots of **OLD** stuff. I’m not at the point of never buying a paper book again, but the days of bringing half a dozen books home every couple of weeks are over for me. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mr.Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Bill)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2018, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/62 "2018-08-17T00:05:01Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > This is more practically done in bulk, using robots, by organizations such as the Internet Archive than by individuals at home. It is less of an issue for newer books since these are produced digitally anyway. Unfortunately, here you run into the issue that even today’s text recognition software is not glitch-free. Some of the e-books I have read recently are ones I first read back in the pre-e-book era. Some of these have numerous text-recognition glitches (reading an i as an l, or in as m, or even not recognizing a character at all and inserting a nonsense character. If the work is all done by robots, there’s no-one to correct these mistakes, which is a time-consuming (and thus costly) process. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2018, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/63 "2018-08-17T00:16:14Z")
I read lots of e-books. I still like print books, especially for reference work. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2018, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/64 "2018-08-17T01:05:05Z")
> [@Mr.Bill](#): > > Unfortunately, here you run into the issue that even today’s text recognition software is not glitch-free. > > Some of the e-books I have read recently are ones I first read back in the pre-e-book era. Some of these have numerous text-recognition glitches (reading an i as an l, or in as m, or even not recognizing a character at all and inserting a nonsense character. > > If the work is all done by robots, there’s no-one to correct these mistakes, which is a time-consuming (and thus costly) process. You are absolutely right, of course; I was only thinking of the work scanning them. Projects like Gutenberg, Wikisource and some others rely on multitudes of volunteer proofreaders, and in the worst case slightly garbled but still searchable text, in conjunction with images of the original pages, is better than nothing. One also hopes automatic OCR will get better eventually. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2018, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/65 "2018-08-17T05:24:54Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > 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. > > I propose that we lobby congress to enact a law that gives purchasers of paper books the right to a free digital copy, as is the case now with music and videos. It’s criminal that publishers can charge as much for a digital version of a book as for the hard copy. Either make the digital copy very cheap, or make it a package deal: full price gets both editions. And it should be retroactive: I should be able to get a free digital copy of every book I already own. Then I could happily free myself of the burden of tons of physical books. Try moving intercontinentally. I donated my library to the private library in Bangkok we subscribed to. And yes, I had read every book in it. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2018, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/66 "2018-08-17T13:40:23Z")
Every time I see this thread title I hear "I like print books and I cannot lie, you other readers can’t deny, when a guy walks by with glasses on his head and a novel that’s half read… " ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2018, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/67 "2018-08-17T22:49:57Z")
> [@Mr.Bill](#): > > And that is what I like about bookstores. Especially used bookstores with lots of **OLD** stuff. > > I’m not at the point of never buying a paper book again, but the days of bringing half a dozen books home every couple of weeks are over for me. I know the feeling. If I did that, and I’m tempted, I’d have to live to 110 to finish all my books instead of the 105 I have to live to now. There are a few used bookstores around here I have to keep myself from going to. I have no problem avoiding alcohol or drugs but books are another matter. ---
**Author:** ![LegendHasit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/legendhasit/32/8246_2.png) [@LegendHasit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LegendHasit)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2018, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/68 "2018-08-18T12:49:44Z")
I like print books. I read more on my tablet these days, so when I have a have an actual tree-book in my hands, I often try to swipe to turn the page. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2018, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/69 "2018-08-19T06:18:24Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Me too. Dead-tree books only. In fact, a Canadian friend back in Bangkok kept trying to convince me e-readers were better. But he kept breaking his. Stepped or sat on them. He went through at least four in the few years I knew him. I pointed out to him I could step or sit on my dead-tree books all I wanted and still read them. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/70 "2018-08-20T07:39:27Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > In fact, a Canadian friend back in Bangkok kept trying to convince me e-readers were better. But he kept breaking his. Stepped or sat on them. He went through at least four in the few years I knew him. I pointed out to him I could step or sit on my dead-tree books all I wanted and still read them. Bingo. One of my most treasured books is a first-edition, signed-by-the author-with-marginalia-by-the-author, book of poems by Dorothy Parker. If anybody sits or steps on it, I might not like it, but the book would be still readable and valuable. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/71 "2018-08-20T12:41:32Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Bingo. One of my most treasured books is a first-edition, signed-by-the author-with-marginalia-by-the-author, book of poems by Dorothy Parker. If anybody sits or steps on it, I might not like it, but the book would be still readable and valuable. If someone broke my kindle, the books I have on it are still readable and valuable. The kindle is fungible. It is a computer; it is not a book. And I’ve had my kindle for four years. I read it every day. Hundreds of books a year. They are not particularly fragile. ---
**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:** [August 20, 2018, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/72 "2018-08-20T14:15:08Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > In fact, a Canadian friend back in Bangkok kept trying to convince me e-readers were better. But he kept breaking his. Stepped or sat on them. He went through at least four in the few years I knew him. I pointed out to him I could step or sit on my dead-tree books all I wanted and still read them. > [@wonky](#): > > If someone broke my kindle, the books I have on it are still readable and valuable. The kindle is fungible. It is a computer; it is not a book. > > And I’ve had my kindle for four years. I read it every day. Hundreds of books a year. They are not particularly fragile. Right, and if an e-reader breaks, is stolen, lost, or otherwise rendered unusable, the content you have purchased will be restored at no cost when the device is replaced. If your paper books are lost, stolen, or destroyed, singly or en masse, you have to buy them all over again. > [@Spoons](#): > > Bingo. One of my most treasured books is a first-edition, signed-by-the author-with-marginalia-by-the-author, book of poems by Dorothy Parker. If anybody sits or steps on it, I might not like it, but the book would be still readable and valuable. Okay, here is one point where paper books have it all over e-books. Even if there were a way for author to e-sign e-books, I don’t think they would ever have the same cachet as an autographed first edition. (I own nearly 100 autographed books, many of which are firsts.) ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/73 "2018-08-20T16:01:37Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > 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. > > I propose that we lobby congress to enact a law that gives purchasers of paper books the right to a free digital copy, as is the case now with music and videos. It’s criminal that publishers can charge as much for a digital version of a book as for the hard copy. Either make the digital copy very cheap, or make it a package deal: full price gets both editions. And it should be retroactive: I should be able to get a free digital copy of every book I already own. Then I could happily free myself of the burden of tons of physical books. I quoted this in full because I just went through the exact same nightmare. I am still surrounded with unpacked bins full of books (and DVDs) because the five full book cases I installed were not enough. ETA: I am so shell shocked from my move that I forgot I already posted earlier in this thread. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CelticKnot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/celticknot/32/3392_2.png) [@CelticKnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelticKnot)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2018, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/74 "2018-08-20T17:24:57Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Definitely. There is something about a printed book, and it extends to beyond the smell. It’s the feel of the pages, and of the book itself. > > I collect rare books–my oldest come from the late-19th and early 20th centuries–and those smell and feel wonderful. I can’t find it now, but I found an article that reports about at least one study that shows that readers retain more content from book than a screen. You get physical cues from holding a book, such as whether a particular part was at the beginning, middle, or end of the book. You can also recall which side the page was, and where on the page the part was-which you can get from a screen if the pages don’t scroll. > [@DavidwithanR](#): > > I don’t buy any of the either/or, either. 🙂 > Of course electronic reading works, and of course I use it. And there are things available electronically that aren’t on paper. > > Doesn’t stop me from claiming that paper is objectively better in many ways, but both are important. I don’t care to buy books. That might come from not appreciating my mother’s thousands of paperback bodice-rippers, or because I usually read mysteries and rarely want to read them twice. We also frequently don’t have room in the budget for books, so the library is the way we get books. I have a Kindle, and because the local library is…not optimal, I read ebooks more often than paper books. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/75 "2018-08-21T01:53:12Z")
Yes, yes I do. My apartment has two bedrooms, and one is full of bookcases. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/76 "2018-08-21T04:12:15Z")
I still have hundreds (thousands?) of paper books, and still acquire and read them. But given the choice, I’ll always pick the Kindle. It is more comfortable than any paperback and can travel with me anywhere. I have no particular nostalgia for paper. Pure backlit displays like tablets are garbage for reading, but the Paperwhite is awesome; better than a paperback, since I can dial in the brightness to feel natural and just still be a tad brighter than I can get from room light. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2018, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/77 "2018-08-21T13:13:18Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > I quoted this in full because I just went through the exact same nightmare. I am still surrounded with unpacked bins full of books (and DVDs) because the five full book cases I installed were not enough. In our garage we have 63 unpacked boxes of books, DVDs, and CDs, and 13 bookcases totaling almost 120 linear feet of shelf space. Coincidentally, today Ikea will deliver four new bookcases with 53 linear feet of shelves for our family room. (We needed new ones because the old ones are the wrong color, and [Billys](https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/series/28102/) are inexpensive.) This will allow us to unpack about one quarter of our books. The rest will languish in the garage until we finish the basement, hopefully sometime in the next six months. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2018, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/78 "2018-08-21T15:06:29Z")
> [@Jesus (Luke 12:16-20)](#): > > And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ > > “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ > > “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ That parable hits a little uncomfortably close to home for me if I mentally substitute “books” for “grain” and “bookshelves” for “barns.” ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/79 "2018-08-22T04:47:20Z")
We now have a hurricane bearing down on us. Electricity may be out, with no way to charge devices. My trusty dead-tree books don’t need charging. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631/80 "2018-08-22T11:39:46Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > I prefer to read digitally just because it’s so handy. You and the blind. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-print-books/819631.md?page=5)