62% of 16-24s prefer books as physical products

http://www.voxburner.com/publications/347-62-of-16-24s-prefer-books-as-physical-products

by shawndumas • 13 years ago

103 130 13 years ago

voxburner.com

001sky• 13 years ago

Honestly, they are more 'information efficient'. Digital is more space & volume efficient. Both have their place, IMHO.

WD-422• 13 years ago

"E-book readers have the capacity to carry thousands of books while still being incredibly lightweight."

This is one argument I never understand. Why would you care if you can carry thousands of books at once? I rarely read more than one at a time.

I don't use ebooks. Physical books are still more attractive. You can abuse them without worrying about damaging them. And most importantly, when you have finished reading a spectacular book, you can give it to a friend to read.

marknutter2• 13 years ago

Maybe not thousands, but perhaps 5-10? I bounce around from book to book quite regularly, especially technical books.

makerops• 13 years ago

And technical books have a requirement of being at least 500 pages.

patmcc• 13 years ago

Travel. Going away for two weeks and taking 1 ebook compared to 8 or 9 paperbacks is really nice.

robbyking• 13 years ago

Why would you care if you can carry thousands of books at once?

Because you don't always know what you'll want to read next, especially while traveling.

Additionally, most eBook users don't just read books on their devices, but also newspapers, magazines, blogs, and articles from services like Instapaper and Pocket. (And for what it's worth, you can lend most eBooks.)

sipior• 13 years ago

I used to think this as well, until I moved across an ocean. I'm a big fan of packing light nowadays.

jballanc• 13 years ago

I was going to say exactly this. After two cross-city moves and one cross-country move, my wife and I converted our sizable (~100-150) book collection completely over to e-books before moving overseas. The most annoying thing about physical books is that they are so dense. Movers (especially long-distance movers) will charge on both weight and space, so even though it may not seem like you have a lot of stuff, the added cost of moving a couple dozen books can quickly eclipse the expense of replacing them electronically.

WD-422• 13 years ago

I'm a fan of Living Light. I don't see why people hang on to old books, unless they are useful for reference (which is becoming more and more rare with the internet as a resource) Books do so much more good being read than collecting dust on a bookshelf. I give all of mine away.

ghaff2• 13 years ago

The lending thing IS an annoyance although many Kindle books have a limited loaning ability these days.

Like others, I do often find myself flipping between books on a trip depending upon my mood and level of energy: serious lit, brain candy, non-fiction, etc. It's nice to have the choice on a device (tablet) that I would tend to carry with me in any case. I also like having an illuminated screen. The lighting is often terrible in hotels and other locations.

That said--if I didn't travel a lot--I'd probably be relatively ambivalent about e-books. I like the de-cluttering aspect but I'm probably not going to re-read most books anyway and I find e-books generally a suboptimal format for things like cookbooks that I do keep around.

bonemachine4• 13 years ago

"Thousands" is a bit hyperbolic, for sure.

But 2-3 is a far more typical use case, and even at that scale, the carry weight matters. Plus people are carrying phones (and increasingly, tablets) around these days, in any case. So that's where the value proposition kicks in.

grammaton4• 13 years ago

No, it's really not. A base model Nook can hold about 2000 books. If you have the older simple touch with an SD slot, you can expand that into the realm of....far more books than you'll ever live to read, quite frankly.

grammaton4• 13 years ago

First of all, just because you only read one book at a time, doesn't mean that other people are the same way.

Second, even if you only read one book at a time (like yourself, and me as well), an ereader like the Nook or Kindle is still significantly more compact than even a trade paperback. A 700+ page hardcover? Forget it, it's not even a contest.

marknutter2• 13 years ago

As always, context is king. Sure, physical books are desirable in certain contexts. They don't need to be recharged, they smell nice, you can proudly display them in your bookshelf, and you feel like you actually own something since you can hold it in your hands. But I'm guessing a percentage of 16-24 year olds much higher than 38% prefer ebooks when traveling long distances.

bronbron• 13 years ago

Why? Even on longer train rides (3+ days) I've never wished that I was carrying more than a book or two at most. A novel or two of adequate length and complexity is more than enough, unless you plan to be reading literally the entire time.

Sure, maybe an e-reader is superior for those 14-day treks, but the vast majority of people don't make those kinds of trips anymore considering that most of the world is reachable within a day at most.

icebraining3• 13 years ago

But what about when you're at the location you traveled to?

KaoruAoiShiho• 13 years ago

Coincidentally 62% don't have tablets.

maaarghk• 13 years ago

I disagree for novels etc, but for textbooks and review papers it is really unbelievably better to have a printed copy. The ability to flick back and forward and quickly take notes is so, so useful. Nothing to do with the smell or cracked spine though. Fuck cracked spines.

mhurron• 13 years ago

I've found it depends on what the text book is for.

If it's going to be a constant reference, I would prefer a searchable ebook as it is a lot easier to carry many of them on my Nook too and from work.

If it is a book I am reading to increase my knowledge of a subject but not one I expect to be a constant reference back too, like a study guide or the like, I prefer a print book.

TillE• 13 years ago

Precisely. The Kindle does a fantastic job with simple linear text, but there's still no really good electronic solution for large-format, illustrated books. I'm talking both hardware and software.

The rumored larger iPad, if it ever sees the light of day, would probably be aimed at this kind of use.

oacgnol• 13 years ago

I've found this to be a problem with reading technical books on my Kindle. I'm constantly flipping back and forth between examples and text and it's really not as good (read: not as fast) as flipping physical pages.

kcorbitt• 13 years ago

I agree that currently this is the case. But why should it be any harder to flip between bookmarks in an ebook than switch tabs in a browser?

ivan_ah2• 13 years ago

I find keeping track of "context" is much easier with a real book. For example, I know that I saw an equation 3 or 4 pages ago on the top left, so I can quickly flip back and find it, whereas on a digital form a would have to PGUP a couple of times and be presented with a "blur" of pixels and try to catch the same equation.

Then again, I'm not sure what UI modern eBook readers have for setting and going to bookmarks.

clusterfoo• 13 years ago

Not only is flipping back and forth much easier in a math/technical book, but, for some reason, I find I actually learn better.

Something about associating a piece of information with a physical location on a real object makes everything "snap" together better in my head ("Oh, I remember this concept, it was about a third of the way through Dummit & Foote. Yep, it's all coming back now.").

I can still pick up my calculus textbook from a class I took 5 years ago and open more or less in the right section of what I'm looking for. I've associated that object, it's weight, feel, and size, with the information it contains.

I can't say the same about any of the dozens of pdf's I have on my tablet. I'd probably have trouble opening the right file, let alone where inside that file the information is!

If it matters or is long-term knowledge, I always get the book. (Even if given the insane pricing of textbooks, I wish this didn't have to be the case...)

jurassic• 13 years ago

This statistic is not very useful in isolation. What percentage of people in this age group have tried using ebooks? They say that 45% of those surveyed don't have an ebook-ready device... what percent of the ebook naysayers have not even tried it?

It also seems odd to me that they treat 16-24 as one group. 24 year olds are adults who hopefully have college degrees, jobs, perhaps have a long commute, and nontrivial income. 16 year olds are most commonly living with parents and unemployed. It's not hard to imagine these differences being a factor in digital media habits.

moonka• 13 years ago

Also, I can imagine differences between people who have had to move a few times on their own with limited funds (most adults), and those who haven't (most teenagers). That was what originally pushed me into ebooks, and since then I've become very glad to have it.

vcherubini• 13 years ago

As a parent, it's incredibly important to read physical books.

First, it shows your children you can be entertained without an electronic device. My oldest son is three and already an expert on the iPad and iPhone. It worries me how much he wants to use the device, and telling him he can't use it and the whole family is taking a timeout from electronics is important to his growth. He can draw while I read a book, for example.

Second, buying physical books at a bookstore is a great bonding experience. I love taking my little guys to the local Half Price Books which always has a great dedicated kids section.

These reasons aren't only for parents, of course, but as a parent I find having physical books present is important.

leokun• 13 years ago

I buy physical books for my daughter. We also go the library every week and borrow books. I have the same experience without having to resort to reading a physical book myself. I use a kindle fire and have gotten rid of 99% of my physical books and have no intention of ever buying another physical book with the exception of hard to get computer science books that are not available in digital format in any form or shape.

taking a timeout from electronics is important to his growth

My 5 year old daughter has been able to self-regulate her ipad use, she's had an ipad since she was 3. We only limit videos: when and how many videos she can watch because she won't stop watching them unless we intervene.

buckerine2• 13 years ago

I'm a parent, too, but to me the fear of giving children too much "screen time" is anachronistic in this day and age. Not to say that screen time SHOULDN'T be limited, but the reasons for that are primarily because of the passive nature of, say, watching videos where images on screen change quickly. There is evidence that this sort of constant passive entertainment can erode attention spans. What we're concerned primarily about is !) instilling self control, which in and of itself has nothing to do with electronic devices, and 2) exposing our kids to a variety of stimuli and not just whatever appears on a screen. But again, this latter point is important irrespective of whether we're talking about electronic devices, legos, or barbie dolls.

As to buying physical books being a great bonding experience, I agree, but I think it's also beside the point.

rodgerd• 13 years ago

to me the fear of giving children too much "screen time" is anachronistic in this day and age.

Given that there's overwhelming evidence that screen time is completely worthless for language aquisition in children, as one example, not worrying about screen time demonstrates ignorance around different modes of learning and interaction.

icebraining3• 13 years ago

I don't understand why would you need to read a physical book to show them you can be entertained without an electronic device (doesn't playing with them already show that?), nor why would the whole family need to take a "timeout" from electronics so that you can tell him he can't use the devices.

I agree that physical books are best for children, and I certainly give physical copies to my younger brothers, but the reasons for the parent to read physical books seem specious.

BrownBuffalo• 13 years ago

Hipsters wrote this article.

yangez• 13 years ago

Here's an important piece of demographic information for the survey:

45% of those surveyed don’t own a device that can read ebooks – this includes both e-readers and smartphones.

So almost half of those polled don't actually have steady access to ebooks. I wonder how the statistics change for a sample who have ready access to both.

jdminhbg• 13 years ago

Either many of those 45% don't realize they don't have access to devices that can read ebooks (may not know their iOS/Android device can run Kindle/iBooks/whatever) or this was a really weird sample.

Twenty-somethings are the leading smartphone users in the U.S., with a full 81% of Americans aged 25 to 34 using the devices. Teens aren’t far behind, with almost 70% of those aged 13 to 17 already using a smartphone.

via http://www.webpronews.com/u-s-smartphone-penetration-hits-64...

smackfu2• 13 years ago

My assumption is that the actual question in the survey didn't mention smart phones.

(And, to be honest, I never use my smartphone to read e-books.)

SomeCallMeTim• 13 years ago

Sure, but even more key than that is that this is a question about perception, which can potentially be overcome with education.

How many of the people who say they prefer a physical book have read a complete book using a modern e-reader? How many of them have learned about a book, gone to their e-reader, bought it, and started reading, all within 5 minutes, while sitting in their pajamas, at 11pm? How many have purchased enough e-books that they feel they are carrying a small library in their bag, even though it still only weighs less than a pound.

There are compelling reasons to like an e-reader even if you still really prefer a physical book.

ghaff2• 13 years ago

Or they don't really consider smartphones or PCs suitable devices for reading ebooks. I know I'll read an ebook on my smartphone from time to time but if that were all I had, I certainly wouldn't buy ebooks for it. Of course, I think it's also entirely possible that at least some respondents just answered whether they had an ebook reader or not--however the actual question was worded.

rtpg• 13 years ago

I have never used my smartphone to try and read a book, I think most people around me would agree that it would not be a fun experience (most people around me have older smartphones with small screes).

I do own a Kindle, though, but my point is that I think many people don't consider their smartphone a "reading device".

revelation• 13 years ago

And then you exclude the 70% of 16-24 year olds that don't even regularly read, and have no use for either ebooks or paper books...

goostavos• 13 years ago

> 45% of those surveyed don’t own a device that can read ebooks – this includes both e-readers and smartphones.

I'd say this is the key variable in the set.

Another example:

"The only reason I haven’t bought an e-reader is because I love the feeling of holding a book in hand and seeing the creases in the spine when I'm done. It’s like a little trophy."

I was the exact same way -- right down to the explanation as to why I didn't want an ereader. I just loved everything about physical books. The texture, the smell, and, embarrassingly, the vanity of having an apartment filled with books. And then my work bought me an iPad. Everything changed almost immediately.

I absolutely love being able to have an army of books with me at all times. As a guy whose still a student, 95% of my time is spent with technical books. It is absolutely amazing to have everything at my fingertips at all times. I can pull up whatever I feel like studying at any point throughout the day. Few minutes of downtime at work? Maybe I'll read a chapter in my Patterns book. If I'm not feeling that, I just swipe over to Programming in Scala and have some fun. Also, being able to search a book is worth its weight in gold.

That said, there are a few draw backs which irk me. Though, I think these can really be solved with better software.

Firstly, referencing two places in the book at once. How many times have you been reading a textbook and kept your finger in one section while reading another so that you can quickly hop back and forth? Impossible to do quickly with readers. You got to create bookmarks, with each "flip" open the bookmarks, find the one you need, and finally select it to view the page. With physical, all you need to do is flip to where your finger is and presto! Done. The digital equivalent requires multiple taps and a good bit of waiting.

The other drawback is DRM. After a fiasco with Amazon (which I otherwise love), It became clear to me that DRM books are not worth owning. I purchase almost exclusively from O'Reilly due to the fact that they offer a plain old, DRM free PDF. I give them money, then give me the product -- not a licence to use the product under their terms, the actual product for me to do with as I wish. Currently, it's very tough to find all the books I want to read as DRM-free pdfs. I'm doing my best to vote with my wallet, so that means there are many books that I simply don't buy anymore because I like actually owning the things that I purchase.

Other than those caveats, eBooks have completely replaced physical ones for me. The article is kind of pointless given that so few of the people sampled have any actual reference point.

intopieces• 13 years ago

Imagine reading a book, and after a mention of a famous Italian structure, press on the name and have a Wikipedia description of its history appear, with an image.

I'm a great believer in ebooks. However, this is one feature I don't want. It's a distraction, it pulls me away from my book and I end up on a Wikipedia binge instead of finishing what I set out to do. It's not good for my attention span.

freehunter• 13 years ago

I guess it depends on the type of book. There are books that aren't narrative-driven that would benefit from hyperlinks to other documents.

swalsh• 13 years ago

Its a distraction in a novel, but a life saver in a text book.

bonemachine4• 13 years ago

It can also be very useful in fiction works with geographic, historical other implicit external references, and/or unknown/foreign words.

If it's distracting, there can just be an option in the reader to disable it. Problem solved.

bonemachine4• 13 years ago

Then just don't press on the name for it (or click on the link, whatever). Problem solved. Just because you have self-control issues doesn't mean that this (extremely) useful feature should be denied to others.

swift• 13 years ago

There are some novels (Gravity's Rainbow comes to mind) where I frequently had to look up various events and people that were mentioned in the text. I can see this being helpful, but I'd probably prefer an "annotated edition" where you could view notes written specifically for the book you were reading instead of generic Wikipedia links.

Unfortunately I haven't encountered any ebooks that handle annotations in a pleasant way that takes advantage of the technology. The few I've seen that had annotations just had hyperlinks to a different page in the ebook, which makes you lose the context. With ebooks, endnotes like these seem absurd to me; the annotation should be viewable inline on the original page.

dunham• 13 years ago

iBooks/epub3 will do popup footnotes, if you mark up the document just right. For more info see: http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/2012/05/creating-pop-up-fo...

The blog article doesn't mention it, but I've found that the footnotes have to be in the same XHTML file as the reference for this to work in iBooks. Also, iBooks for OSX doesn't display these popup footnotes yet.

nhebb• 13 years ago

This age group includes college students, but do we know whether the surveys filtered out textbooks when polling physical vs. ebook preferences? I didn't see that mentioned in the article, and it would have a significant impact on the results.

mdm_• 13 years ago

45% of those surveyed don’t own a device that can read ebooks – this includes both e-readers and smartphones.

Completely anecdotal evidence here, but as someone who works at a university and sees a lot of people age 16-24, noses in their tablets/smartphones/laptops, I have serious doubts about the accuracy of this number.

First of all, "a device that can read ebooks" could be anything from a desktop PC to a smartphone. I find it highly unlikely that in 2013, 45% of people ages 16-24 don't own ANY devices like this. Even if that number is accurate, it's misleading, as many teenagers perhaps don't OWN a device, but have access to a shared PC or the like.

Second, I'm curious about how the survey was conducted. Did they just ask a random sample of people in this group if they have a device that reads ebooks? How many of those people own a capable device and are simply unaware of it, I wonder?

rayiner2• 13 years ago

I recently switched to a job where I deal mainly in bound paper documents. I have to say, I forgot how much more awesome paper is than computers. For processing complex documents, there is no technology that matches a big desk strewn with printed documents. It's like having dozens of lightweight flexible high resolution 13" displays. Marking up a piece of paper with post it notes, pencil marks, and highlighter is a tactile experience that even the best styluses simply can't match. The lack of "UI" between you and the annotations helps tremendously with processing and retention.[1]

It's a shame that so few companies are exploring the synergies of paper and digital. I keep trying the livescribe, but the company can't write decent software to save their lives. I want to be able to print a document from my ipad onto dot paper, and have my markup automagically show up in the pdf copy. It can't be hard.

[1] In school, I found the low tech approach of carrying around heavy case books to be the most effective. My pop psychology explanation for this is that computers don't take advantage of our spatial memory. I can go back and visualize myself highlighting something in specific physical book, but on a screen it all just blends together in my memory.

jowiar• 13 years ago

I'll add one to your n - For me, the mental image of where on a page something was, as well as physically, where in the book that page exists helps. I can get something similar from audiobooks by picturing where I was when I heard something (I typically listen to audiobooks when running or driving). E-books are a difficult case.

arh683• 13 years ago

I'm very pro-paper. Flipping back and forth in a book (is there any other way to read a textbook?) is just a much better experience than swiping madly or spamming PgDwn. I feel trapped inside that little rectangle of a viewport, waiting for pixels to change.

computers don't take advantage of our spatial memory. I can go back and visualize

I still remember the page of my linear algebra textbook that related rowspace, nullspace, transpose. It seemed terribly confusing at the time so I was staring more than reading. I remember the layout on the page, the red lines. I don't recall the exact formula, so it's not magic, but the memory is so unusually sticky I can't help but agree.

It's a shame that so few companies are exploring the synergies of paper and digital.

If there's a (cheap) way to use a whiteboard and not resort to A) writing down the novel bits, B) taking a picture, I am all ears. Putting the tech in the board is probably too expensive.. perhaps a marker attachment would be more realistic. Once it's digitized, OCR / vector drawings can be tried & improved. I like the idea of the Evernote/Moleskine duo, but I just don't use moleskines like that.

Random tidbit: in the Mad Men-styled issue of TIME (2012?), there was a very good full-page ad on the real benefits of reading/using paper. Might have it somewhere.

alnis• 13 years ago

http://www.colourtime.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Domtar-...

This one?

superuser2• 13 years ago

Is the SMART board what you are looking for? Installed SMART boards are rapidly becoming standard hardware in K12 classrooms.

jrsnyder• 13 years ago

I definitely agree with you on your spatial memory explanation.

There are so many applications out there trying to come up with new digital ways to record / access information, but almost all of them discard the spatial organization tools we have in physical workflows.

When you are trying to use information in your head (the most important stop in a workflow), you often need to build a lot of organizational structures in order to make the information maximally accessible from memory. Spatial "shuffling" is one of the quickest ways set up informal organizational structure. It makes use of our brains' good memory for spatial locations, compared to our brains' memory for abstract concepts.

In order to use spatial shuffling to organize information, you need to be able to place things freely, and have them stay there. Digital applications so infrequently offer this ability - they do not allow informal organization or spatial organization.

In an application, pieces of information are usually laid out according to a well-defined sorting algorithm. Layout-by-algorithm breaks both your ability to place a piece of information freely, and your ability to find a piece of information by location (because a new piece of information could shift the whole layout according to the sorting algorithm).

buckerine2• 13 years ago

Yeah, so all this just points to an opportunity within the ebook realm to create a more refined experience. It does not necessarily mean physical books are superior in any way.

chc2• 13 years ago

This is very true — if your scope only encompasses a couple dozen pages' worth of data. If your data is actually desk-able, then that will probably work well because it comes very naturally to most people. But if you have a large dataset (say, 100 pages), my experience is that the computer is going to do a lot better both at retrieval and at processing.

So basically, this is another example of things that are great but don't scale.

adestefan• 13 years ago

I find the opposite. I can handle a couple pages on the computer, but after that I want to print it out and tape it to the wall. It's much easier for me to find relations when looking at everything on the than trying to scroll around on the computer.

I regularly print out large amount of code across dozens of files to mane sense of someone else's mess.

rayiner2• 13 years ago

I think it depends on what you're doing with the documents. My current job involves writing 10-20 page legal memos based on a couple of 30-50 page briefs, and maybe a few hundred pages of supporting cases. I have to get comfortable discussing all the material orally. I print out everything because I find it to really help with recall (particularly verbal recall). On the other hand, if I'm looking for some particular quote I highlighted, its a very slow process to shuffle through dozens of printouts looking for what I highlighted. If I'm trying to sort and categorize my annotations, say by legal issue, dealing with paper highlights is obviously a bit cumbersome.

What I really want is to be able to write on and mark up paper and have it automatically digitized and indexed for sorting and retrieval.

lallysingh• 13 years ago

No, no, and no.

I think this depends on how much you read. If reading books is just a past-time, maybe those responses make sense? But if you're a heavy reader, there's just no competition.

- The physical feeling of a book is nice until you need to carry it around. Or more than one, if you're reading more than one book at a time. I'll take my nexus 7 over a mid-sized paperback (or 4) any day of the week.

- Bookstores in my home town were filled with "Network Marketing" people who just walked around there all day with paper planners, trying to get people into their pyramid schemes.

- E-readers are getting better at note-taking. And you can search your notes, and search the text. I wish there was better math support, obviously, but I also don't get constrained by how much margin space there is in the book.

Still, my daughter's getting a bunch of paper Dr. Suess (&etc) books for some time :-)

colomon• 13 years ago

It really seems to me it depends on the book and the circumstances. A nice, reasonably sized paperback or hardcover is great for reading; it's less great for carrying around with you or storing. On the other hand, a 1000+ page monster is much easier to read as an e-book. (Though it might look beautiful on your bookshelf.) And the convenience of having 5000+ pages of reading material on my phone is completely unbeatable.

The great thing is, there's absolutely no reason not to do both. Usually at any time I'm reading two or three physical books and two or three e-books.

gvm• 13 years ago

I have a Nook but I don't really use it that much and still buy lots of printed books. I don't know how to explain it, but every physical book has a sort of personality (size, color, font) that goes with it and with the nook all books are the same. I only ever buy books online if they are hard to obtain or are digital only.

Ebooks are also very expensive, often as expensive as a phyisical copy and until the publishers start to bundle every printed book with it's digital copy I don't see myself spending more money on them.

smackfu2• 13 years ago

I wonder what percentage of that population actually reads books outside of school. Probably a depressingly low number.

icebraining3• 13 years ago

http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2012/04/04/part-2-the-gener...

GFischer• 13 years ago

That's a great site, with all the stats you might want about the subject :) . Thanks for sharing.

For book readership:

"22% who told us they had not read a book in the previous 12 months"

"72% of Americans age 16 and older read at least one book in the past year in print; 16% read at least one e-book; 11% listened to at least one audiobook."

That's a surprisingly high number for audiobooks, didn't know it was that big a market.

"Among those who had read a book in the past 12 months:

8% said they had read 1 book

17% had read 2-3 books

16% had read 4-5 books

19% had read 6-10 books

18% had read 11-20 books

22% had read more than 20 books"

Actually, I think that study is more interesting that the submitted article :) (less catchy headline and less processed data)

"In June 2010, 95% of the book readers “yesterday” were reading print books and 4% were reading e-books.

By December 2011 in our survey, 84% of the “yesterday” readers were reading print books and 15% were reading e-books.

The shift toward e-book reading on a typical day is being driven by those who are college educated, those living in higher-income households, and those ages 30-49.

Those groups disproportionately report they were reading e-books yesterday."

ommunist• 13 years ago

Which means 38% prefer them electronically. And taking into account the historical trend, this is good for e-books business! Do you remember these days when Macs were only 9% of the US laptop market? And look at them now. Customers love convenience.

clarry• 13 years ago

I'd probably prefer ebooks if I could find a good e-reader. I don't want to stare at a backlight, so it'd have to be e-ink. However, the e-ink readers I've found are too small and lacking in resolution.

scrrr2• 13 years ago

I prefer the paper version of my books, too. However, sometimes I like to have a digital copy, for example in order to search for content using a phrase.

When I buy a vinyl record nowadays, I often get a download-code for the mp3-version. Book publishers should do the same. Buy a printed book, get the digital for free.

Or just buy the digital, at a lower price.

But hey, I'm not holding my breath for that to happen soon.

mkr-hn• 13 years ago

That's what Kindle Matchbook is: https://www.amazon.com/gp/digital/ep-landing-page?ie=UTF8&*V...

scrrr2• 13 years ago

"For thousands of qualifying books, your past, present, and future print-edition purchases now allow you to buy the Kindle edition for $2.99, $1.99, $0.99, or free."

Nice, but it should be free.

ianburrell• 13 years ago

Unfortunately Matchbook only covers a handful of titles. Out of the hundreds of paper books I have bought from Amazon, many of which have ebook versions, only five are on Matchbook.

They are also only doing it for books you bought in the past. They should be doing it like AutoRip for CDs where you get the ebook for free or small cost when buy the paper version. Bundles with ebook would make a lot of sense for hardback books. Get the ebook immediately and the paper version to get on the shelf.

lytfyre• 13 years ago

Amazon's started offering it on some titles - https://www.amazon.com/gp/digital/ep-landing-page?ie=UTF8&*V...

But it doesn't seem to have much support from the big publishers, who aren't exactly known for their customer friendliness.

jcarpio• 13 years ago

From http://www.voxburner.com/publications/323-buying-digital-con...

wrt the survey details in the OP

Voxburner sourced 1,420 respondents and surveyed them between 25 September and 18 October 2013. Follow-up interviews were conducted and the report includes comment from marketing professionals.
It is available for download only at £495.

dominotw• 13 years ago

16-24 is college aged age group and most college textbooks are hard to format for ebooks. So nothing surprising here.

maga• 13 years ago

Humans have been around for tens of thousands of years and we are still burning fossil fuels and exchanging information by the means of painting pieces of wood. Fascinating.

rjohnk3• 13 years ago

I've always found this type of comment interesting. It assumes that we are supposed to "be" more advanced than we actually are. Time or our date of existence doesn't mean too much in the end.

goldenkey• 13 years ago

We're also using remote-controlled stealth fighter planes to bomb dissenting peoples out of existence. With pin-point accuracy through gps, gyroscopes, and million dollars worth of tech. I'd say there's more pressing priorities than using organic renewable paper to exchange information..E-ink looks like crap. I know a bunch of people who prefer to read without a backlight, and e-ink doesn't cut it either. I'm really surprised many HNers are saying they would read a book on an iPad..all I can say is good luck with their vision after 20+ books read. They might need an eye doctor.

kadabra9• 13 years ago

Does anyone have any statistics or articles about the price differential between ebooks and print? I use my kindle for things like biographies and novels, and exclusively print for things like technical books, mostly due to the poor experience I've had with technical books on e-readers.

More and more though, I've been buying print books simply because, in my own experience, the last couple of books I've purchased have BARELY been cheaper in ebook format than in print. I don't have any data to support me, but I can't help but feel like over the last few years, the gap between prices of ebooks and print books has closed, and with it, one of the big selling points (for me at least) for ebooks.

I'm curious to see if this is actually the case, or just my own personal experience.

deletes• 13 years ago

A piece of processed wood should not be preferred over a notebook sized device capable of storing over 3000 books and capable of wireless connection basically removing the size limit.

Nostalgia is great, but so is our environment.

rjohnk3• 13 years ago

Wood is a renewable resource. Environmentalists also tell me it traps carbon. The ereader still has to be made with parts from the environment.

Plus, when the dystopian future arrives, I'll have plenty of kindling with my growing collection of books. Plus entertainment after all the ereaders grow dark.

grammaton4• 13 years ago

Yeah, the ecological benefits of an ereader may or may not be a wash. Sure, you're saving on trees, but most of the trees books are made from are farmed anyway, and electronics are incredibly, outrageously polluting and energy intensive to manufacture.

beachstartup• 13 years ago

is it possible to buy a physical title on amazon, and have access to the kindle version until the physical copy arrives?

if not, why not?

rjohnk3• 13 years ago

That's the ecclesiastical argument, my friend.

geuis• 13 years ago

I'm calling bullshit. They are selling a product, namely the survey. Here's the Buy link if anyone is so inclined. http://pul.ly/b/85744

If you want to make claims like this, perform a proper scientific study. Document your steps thoroughly, verify your questions aren't leading, use a control group, then publish somewhere appropriate (preferably an open access journal) and let other sociologists attempt to replicate your results.

I can't tell if that was done here because they want hundreds of pounds to find out.

kurtfunai• 13 years ago

When asked if I prefer physical or digital books, I always want to say that I prefer paper. The truth is, while I switch back and forth pretty regularly, I find paper is pretty annoying.

I'm reading The Wheel of Time series right now, entirely on paperback, and I'm constantly aware of how it is physically more annoying to read. I have to constantly switch positions depending on lighting, or which side of the page I am on.

While reading on my kindle, I get to sit still in a comfortable position and not worry about flopping around to catch the light differently on a each side of the book.

programminggeek• 13 years ago

People liking physical books has less to do with nostalgia and more to do with the fact that physical books have much better and more refined formats in many cases. Ebooks are actually a lot better in some formats than other formats.

Digital magazines seem to not work as well because they are different formats and they try to either maintain their existing format and business model or they are basically websites. I have yet to see the digital magazine format really be awesome. Also, one could argue that a monthly curated collection of photos and articles doesn't make much sense when they could be delivered instantly for minimal cost.

Novels feel like they are way better in digital format. A 300-1000 page novel as a paperback is an ok reading experience, but on a e-ink device, you get an improved experience due to the easier storage, retrieval, lightness, etc. of the e-ink Kindle type devices. Even on a Kindle Fire or iPad, the ebook reading experience of reading a novel is pretty great.

The Bible as an ebook in standard epub or kindle format kind of sucks because it is often referenced in particular book/chapter/verse and it's a big enough book that navigation doesn't work super well on a kindle type device, but Bible apps are fantastic because they make it easy and fast to navigate, get multiple translations, etc. Same content, different formats/presentation.

Programming or bigger reference type books I don't think work as well in epub or kindle format yet, because you need something more like a full size iPad to really be close to the original format and a smaller kindle or kindle fire sized device loses enough formatting that it doesn't work as well. If those books were redone to be something formatted for specific device size, it could work really well potentially, but then the cost structure changes a lot from the traditional publishing model of do a book in one format and sell it in lots of places. Instead, you have something closer to video games where you might have the same game ported to various platforms specifically with varying formats/fidelity.

Comic books feel hit or miss on tablets because again it really depends on the format. Full size iPad is a lot closer to the original comic book size and format than something like a Kindle Fire or iPad Mini. To get around this you can zoom into panels and that can be decent, but that feels like a mixed bag.

I think books in various forms going digital is going to be really a work of figuring out what the right formats are and how to translate the books into those formats at a reasonable cost. Some formats are cheap and easy to go digital right away and provide a great experience, some formats are going to take a lot more work.

How much people like digital books is going to depend largely on the experience of reading them. If publishers can create a great experience, people will like that. If the experience sucks, people won't buy.

One reason Amazon is so successful is they have understood from the beginning that ebooks have to be better than physical books for people to care. It took a while, but they really made it work for novels on the kindle.

I think an approach similar to responsive design might help, but it's really going to come down to making great products for each device/format/platform.

SapphireSun2• 13 years ago

The thing preventing me from buying an e-reader: Being able to scribble on it. It's very helpful when reading dense technical books. That and if I'm buying a book, I don't want to deal with battery power - so e-ink or nothing. The display size for paper textbooks is much larger too.

cbhl• 13 years ago

I find the Kindle app for Android and Kindle Cloud Reader have pretty good support for electronic highlighting and note-taking. Not sure about the Kindle hardware devices though.

ezequiel-garzon• 13 years ago

Sony's Digital Paper looks promising... and pricey! [1]

[1] http://news.softpedia.com/news/Sony-Digital-Paper-Has-13-3-I...

lizard• 13 years ago

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 with Mantano Reader Premium works pretty well for me.

Mantano Reader has S-pen support for annotating pages free hand. Annotation creates a copy of the page that is separate from the document which isn't ideal (I'd prefer a layer on the document), but works. It also has multi-color text highlighting and bookmarks for some other options to move around and keep notes.

I find the size and weight of the Galaxy Note 8.0 preferable to larger tablets, much better than a dense technical books, and easier to carry around than printed journal articles. I sometimes have to zoom in to read documents with 2 or 3 column layouts, but Mantano Reader handles that pretty fluidly.

The battery life has been more than satisfactory so far. On a busy day I'll use it to take notes or brainstorm in the morning, my girlfriend will draw on it in the evening, and I can still usually get a few hours reading at night.

It's not perfect and may not be suitable for everyone, but for me it was enough to get over that chasm between technology and the traditional way.

jseliger• 13 years ago

People liking physical books has less to do with nostalgia and more to do with the fact that physical books have much better and more refined formats in many cases

I also like being able to flip back and forth in the book, and to make notes. I didn't realize just how much I flip arbitrarily from one part of a book to another until I got a Kindle.

The real direction I suspect Amazon wants to go is this:

* Print book: $12

* Print and ebook: $12

* ebook only: $8

The middle option may be where we're headed, since ebooks and print books right now do pretty different things, and each has well-known advantages and disadvantages.

neves• 13 years ago

Don't forget that in Kindle I can click in a word and see the dictionary definition. I also can search for it in Wikipedia.

kijin• 13 years ago

I was beginning to like the Kindle when Amazon decided that they wanted to focus on producing full-fledged Android tablets instead. They still make e-ink Kindles, but the cheaper ones have annoying ads, and the entire e-ink lineup feels like they've been neglected for the last couple of years.

I don't like LCD/LED screens for reading books, especially at night when my eyes are tired. Even e-ink is inferior to good ol' paper books, with their crappy contrast, crappy resolution, and ugly fonts that make every book look like just another blog using the same WordPress theme. E-books have a long way to go before they can match the beauty, natural feeling, and personality of a physical book. After all, physical books have been around for centuries. They are a mature technology.

Do you know how much time a good publisher spends trying to find the perfect paper, color, layout, and typography for a book? Do you ever notice the small paragraph at the end of a book where the typographer explains his or her choice of typeface and gives you a brief history of it? The cover is not the only part of a book that needs a designer. I sorely miss that touch of humanity when I read an e-book.

Another commenter says that novels are suitable for digital delivery. I disagree. An e-book might give me the same content, but it certainly doesn't give me the same experience, and a work of literature is really about the experience as a whole, not just the literal content.

NoPiece• 13 years ago

Amazon really hasn't abandoned the e-ink Kindles. They continue to release a new one every single year, and the Paperwhites are solid improvements. It is only $139 for the no ad version (the first Kindle launched at $399). There is only so much visible change they can make until there is some leap in the e-ink technology so the yearly changes may seem smaller, but they are definitely committed and improving the kindle!

baq• 13 years ago

i'll add that the most recent paperwhite has a really great display, much better than anything before it.

trustfundbaby• 13 years ago

When I got my ipad, I went crazy buying ebooks ... first epubs until then I realized that I really hated how those didn't match the actual book layout, fonts, etc ... then I started buying pdf versions of the books. I liked those a lot better because they looked exactly like the book and the page numbers matched. But after the excitement wore off, I realized that I wasn't finishing any of the books, I'd start reading one, get distracted, and never come back to finish it.

So now I'm back to buying the physical book, if I need to travel and want the books with me, the night before I leave, I just go online and purchase them, then load them on my ipad. I do the same thing with magazines (Amazon's newstand will usually give you access to the digital and physical copies of the magazine).

I've come to realize that ebooks in their current form will complement but not replace physical books, until they find a better way to imitate the ui physical version much better than they do now

lucian1900• 13 years ago

I truly loathe physical books and have done so since before ebooks were practical. Not having spines is amazing, I can read with my hands relaxed, in any position I wish at any time. Not having to carry a book is great, especially since I can read on my phone for short periods too.

austinl• 13 years ago

Wholly anecdotal: I find that a lot of people I've talked to who say they prefer physical books actually don't read very often at all.

They go to the library once or twice a year, possibly order a few books online - but that's it. Don't get me wrong, I love physical books, but ebooks are the only way I can keep up with the amount I read - which is usually one book every few weeks, possibly 30 books a year or more.

For anyone looking for a good ereader, I would highly recommend Readmill (https://readmill.com/).

niuzeta2• 13 years ago

but ebooks are the only way I can keep up with the amount I read - which is usually one book every few weeks, possibly 30 books a year or more.

This was one of the reasons I've seriously contemplated getting a ebook.

Then I found the ireward card(http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/irewards/)... Now I save more than a kindle's price every year.

Okay, maybe I solved a wrong problem.

acuozzo• 13 years ago

but ebooks are the only way I can keep up with the amount I read - which is usually one book every few weeks, possibly 30 books a year or more.

Anecdote: My wife prefers physical books and she completely reads at least one book every 3 days.

owenjones• 13 years ago

Minus any (totally valid) concerns about DRM, I find eBooks to be completely superior to their dead tree versions. As a heavy reader the benefits are enormous:

My kindle weighs less than a pound making reading large books a snap I haven't purchased a paper book since I got the kindle and I'm always pairing down my collection, yet still moving my paper books to a new apartment is an incredibly heavy task A few people have pointed out that "eReaders can hold thousands of books" is silly, until your on a vacation and you finish your current book

I guess I lack the sentimentality of proudly displaying a full bookshelf of my "trophies" with their creased spines. No one seems to lament the sentimentality of the passing of the VHS...

Theodores• 13 years ago

When I was a child I felt odd when visiting a friend's house if there were no books on the shelves, as well as the books being missing I wondered if their education was missing. I felt much happier in places where the walls were lined with books. Particularly notable were the places where video cassettes adorned the walls, I never really knew what to make of that - did they just watch the TV screen all day?

Nowadays I don't have books on shelves at all, whatsoever, under any circumstances. The books I have to buy because they are not available in a digital format tend to be really good and I end up giving them away, for them to not need to be returned. I really do not see a long term future for printed books, there is no need for them, except in museum-libraries.

What would be cool is if you could buy books for people in a digital format on a 'sale or return basis'. They would get the book from you, then, if they actually read past the first few pages, your account get charged. In this way you could give out books to people for birthdays, Christmas and so on without them feeling obliged to read through whatever it is that you have sent them. Equally you could be more generous with gifting as there would be a fair likelihood that some of the books gifted would not be read.

c23gooey• 13 years ago

VHS was replaced with DVD and Blu-Ray both of which have a similar (if not thinner) physical presence. You are still able to proudly display your movie collection if thats what you want.

trekky1700• 13 years ago

I prefer paper to computers in most cases. I prefer reading fiction on an ereader because it's easier to pickup where I left off and switch between devices. Anything I'd read cover to cover I prefer ebooks for. Reference materials in the form of books I much prefer paper because I find it easier to reference back, but I buy them almost exclusively in ebook format because it's much cheaper. Notes I prefer paper, just because of the much more precise doodling/handwriting ability. If I could use a tablet with the same precision and feeling that I could get from paper, I'd switch notes too. But technologies not there yet.

coldpie• 13 years ago

I'm just outside of this age rage, but I strongly prefer physical books to ebooks, for one major reason: lending. I gave the Kindle app on my phone a solid effort for about a year, but shortly afterwards I realized I wanted to lend the book I had just finished to my friend. While I know some apps have limited "lending" features, even ignoring their limitations they are far, far more complicated than just taking a book off a shelf and handing it to your friend. No worries about compatibilities or email addresses or suspended accounts or any such nonsense.

In addition, I ride public transit to and from work every day, and having high end electronics does make you a target for thieves. Smartphone theft is very common, and flaunting a $50-200 ereader makes you stand out from the crowd. And, if someone yanks my bag, I'm out a $10 book instead of a $200 tablet and whatever personal information happens to be on it.

Then there's everything else the article mentions, including liking books with cracked spines filling the "trophy cases" (bookshelves) in my reading room.

All this adds up, and as a result I haven't bought an ebook in 2 years, and can't think of ever going back.

mikecane• 13 years ago

Meanwhile, 99% of those in the survey buy/download MP3s instead of buying CDs. Next!

ivan_ah2• 13 years ago

Two observations:

1. As much as the reading on an electronic device is "convenient," there is also the problem that the same electronic device can be used to check your email, read hacker news, and do other procrastination activity. This availability of "other things to do" has a terrible effect on the attention span of the reader.

2. Also, I don't like phrasing the debate print VS. eBook. A book is an informational product, distilled knowledge organized by an author for his/her readers. The information is the product, not its physical(or digital) manifestations. As far as I'm concerned it should be print AND eBook, so that the readers can enjoy the same material as they find more convenient. This is the approach I follow with my math textbook (http://minireference.com/#book_details): people who purchase the printed version get the PDF for free.

Okay, three things. This article reminded me of a previous study on digital books at the UC system of schools: http://www.roughtype.com/?p=2922 TL;DR students are not ready to switch to fully digital.

jl6• 13 years ago

Ebooks may just be like digital cameras were in the 1990s: full of promises, but some way off a compelling replacement for film cameras.

How long before iPads come with hundreds of 600dpi screens, each double sided, flexible, 0.1mm thick, and stacked in a hinged pile to form a truly digital book?

jasomill• 13 years ago

That'd be an incredibly wasteful and extravagant way to simulate the paper book UI, especially given that paper books have wildly different form factors. Do you really want to lug around a device the size of The Structure of Evolutionary Theory† to read a comic book?

† 1464 pages, weighs more than 11 Kindle Paperwhites in hardcover

skriticos2• 13 years ago

Before I got my Kindle Paperwhite, I had the same attitude. It changed dramatically.

neovive• 13 years ago

I think another key factor is genre. Maintaining a large collection of technical books takes up a lot of space and many of the books become outdated quickly. Ebooks have the advantage of being "upgraded" at a lower price.

However, books with many illustrations, photos, or even novels, do seem to feel better in their physical form.

_volkan_• 13 years ago

One of the things I like about physical books, when you are done, you can just give it away to a friend or a local library.

jarjoura• 13 years ago

I prefer reading novels in ebook format, but most other forms I prefer having the physical dead-tree version.

One thing I think holds some ebook formats back is the insistence on replicating the physical experience. I do not need page turn animations or things broken up into slices.

Though, once some startup figures it out, it will seem obvious at the time.

antocv• 13 years ago

I prefer artificially unrestricted texts, the best so far is in epub format and to read it on a Kobo Aura or Aura HD reader.

The physical books I still want to own just as decoration for living space and a conversation starter. But to carry around a fat book - no thanks, thats what e-ink readers are for.

The ebook market is not mature yet, most ereaders are too small and offer shitty support for various formats and are too restricted.

The interface on the ereaders can also be improved a lot, for example the Aura HD is showing the book cover when it is sleeping - there should be a setting to let the last read page be shown instead. Flipping pages offers no animation - some people would like that. Fast flipping through a book is also not supported, it is still faster to flip through a physical book than one on ereader. But these are all technical issues that can be solved.

lifeisstillgood• 13 years ago

sorry folks - too much focus on technology. The reason why is much simpler - if you are reading a dog-eared paperback book and a pretty girl glances over at you, you (think you) look erudite, quiet, self-possessed and cool. Reading a kindle you look like a nerd playing video games.

"How will your software help your users get laid"

owenfi• 13 years ago

The Guardian article includes a few more of the raw numbers.[1]

I particularly like 'The top-rated reasons for preferring physical to digital products were: ... "I am not restricted to a particular device" (20%)'. A good concept to be aware of, but physical books are by definition restricted to a single device.

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/25/young-adult-rea...

silveira• 13 years ago

In my case, physical games/books because DRM.

grammaton4• 13 years ago

It literally takes me about five seconds to strip the DRM off of an epub, and then I can have backup copies of my own library. No losing books because a pipe bursts or a trunk gets lost during a move.

erbo• 13 years ago

Let's also keep one advantage of physical books over e-books in mind:

If I take a book into the bathtub, and drop it, the book may very well be salvageable. At worst, I'm out the price of the book.

If I take an e-book into the bathtub, and drop it, I've likely just hosed a very expensive e-reader or tablet.

Has anyone designed an e-reader which properly handles the "reading in the bathtub" use case?

smileysteve• 13 years ago

There are multiple waterproof cases for all sorts of phones (including the note) to I have a friend that takes his iPhone in the hot tub to play music.

All of these devices also have e-reader apps.

I'll just add to this that Amazon got me to buy a kindle @ a $9 price point.

davidf18• 13 years ago

With many books and journal articles I have both the paper and the Kindle/pdf version. The hard copy is useful for initial comprehension of the material with underlining and notation and the electronic copy for lightweight, quick reference of that material once I basically understand it.

JulianMorrison• 13 years ago

Print books basically have two overwhelming disadvantages for me. (1) They mass a LOT. (2) Due to #1, they AREN'T HERE. My tablet is here, my phone is here. My ebooks are here. My squashed tree books are at home.

62% of 16-24s prefer books as physical products

Related Stories