Are Books becoming obsolete ?

[Halibut]

You can't copy & paste from books.

 

And therein lies part of their value and appeal.

[taxman]

Books will never become obsolete as long as I have money in my pocket.

[Leah-Lacie]

I have loads of books on my shelf, when people come round they ask if they were here when I moved in. Is it so unbelievable that people still read??

[handypandy]

Theres nothing quite like the feel of a book, but its probably what you are brought up with. I cant see me ever reading a novel from a Kindle, it all seems a bit 'pot noodle' if you know what I mean. A few years ago, I binned some old building reference books as most of the stuff was out of date and irrelevant to todays methods. However, I felt very guilty, it was like burying an old friend.

[Twiglet]

I love my proper books but I'm becoming a bit of a digital convert. All my hard copy books I also have in PDF which means I can take my entire reference library around with me (convenient for work), and can also highlight and annotate them without damaging the book.

[poppins]

Sadly a beautiful book store called Borders just closed down in my area , just to walk in there and smell all the books was a treat, no matter what book you asked for they had on the shelves, now every books less than half price to get rid of them

[Rupert_Baehr]

I bought a kindle for my wife a couple of months ago. She reads large numbers of paperbacks and there's no second-hand market for them around here, so they end up in the recycling bin.

 

I've used the kindle myself and - although it took a bit of getting used to - it works well. I've tried to read books on the screen of a computer, but (for me) that doesn't work at all.

 

There are a number of 'free' books available (though most of the ones I've tried weren't worth reading) but the prices of other books seem often to be higher than that of paperbacks. - Which (apart from in Airport bookshops) usually seem to be sold at less than the MRRP.)

 

The time I'm most likely to use a kindle is when I'm travelling. - It's much easier to carry around than 3 or 4 paperbacks and kindle book prices are slightly lower than those in airport bookshops.

 

I don't know whether people have (or have considered) forming 'kindle libraries' where all the devices are registered to the same account and each user pays for his/her purchases. That would be one way of reducing the costs per book (though I doubt Amazon would approve. )

[Rupert_Baehr]

Sadly a beautiful book store called Borders just closed down in my area , just to walk in there and smell all the books was a treat, no matter what book you asked for they had on the shelves, now every books less than half price to get rid of them

 

I used to use Borders when we lived in MS. It was indeed a good bookstore and (AFAIR) it had a 'membership club' which got you one free book for every 5 (or maybe 10) purchased.

[taxman]

I get through 2-3 books a week. If I've bought it or it's a particularly good book it goes on my bookcase for time immemorial. If it's a poor book or one I've picked up off the book trolley at work I usually donate it somewhere. I like the physicality of them. I like the fact they take up space on my walls, they give an indication as to who I am, what I think, what I believe.

 

In my job I visit people in their homes....the first thing I look at (apart from any friendly dogs) is what they have on their bookshelves.

 

It's how I decide on the level of penalty to charge.

 

(joke)

[algy]

They've been predicting the end of books for years, just like the much vaunted 'paperless office', but neither prediction seems any nearer coming true.

The argument is usually based purely on books as a means of information. But books are much more than that, they are tactile, portable, need no power source, and you can read them in the bath!