I don't want magazines to end. :(

[TheNerdAL]

Today I was looking at Naruto videos since it was a huge part of my childhood and I liked the nostalgia, then I decided to check out the Shonen Jump site. (Shonen Jump is a magazine that has different manga inside.) I went to the site to check how it was like and if anything is new. Turns out they are turning to a digital magazine.

I was sad.

I don't subscribe to SJ anymore, but that made me sad because a kid wouldn't be able to have the awesome magazine in their life anymore. I mean that magazine came with exclusive stuff like posters and cards. I remember I found a rare Yugioh card in an issue at the library. I asked the librarian if I can take the card and she said yeah. I was excited. This was after my subscription ended.

Long story short, I don't want magazines to end and turn into digital magazines. :(

Just a rant. Give your thoughts. :P

[Grenage]

Save the trees!

The Kindle was one of my best purchases; no longer is the house littered with beaten book corpses.

[forrestcupp]

Save the trees!

The Kindle was one of my best purchases; no longer is the house littered with beaten book corpses.

I buy all of my books for Kindle now, too. But I see what he means. Digital is really not the best choice for things aimed at kids. And like he said, no more posters and cards included. I'm sure it's going to save them a lot of money to go digital, but cases like these, it's a shame.

[spynappels]

Save the trees!

The Kindle was one of my best purchases; no longer is the house littered with beaten book corpses.

I agree, but sometimes an actual paper book is nice, like the 6th Edition of O'Reilly's Learning Perl book. I like being able to flick back 10 or 15 pages quickly to get back to a page that covered a specific detail, and I find this more difficult to do on my Kindle.

Still wouldn't leave home without my Kindle though.

[Grenage]

I'm sure it's going to save them a lot of money to go digital, but cases like these, it's a shame.

Judging by some of the prices on ebooks, I'm not sure who the winners are. If a book is £5 physical and £5 digital, I'll take the physical on principle - at least I can pass the book on. I've seen some ebooks cost more!

Regarding the things not being suitable for kids, there's probably a good market to be tapped by a rugged child-proof* e-reader.

*As far as such things can be.


I agree, but sometimes an actual paper book is nice, like the 6th Edition of O'Reilly's Learning Perl book. I like being able to flick back 10 or 15 pages quickly to get back to a page that covered a specific detail, and I find this more difficult to do on my Kindle.

Aye, reference books aren't quite as quick to work with.

[BeRoot ReBoot]

While the environmentalist in me rejoices in the death of the dead tree format, I'm very worried about the implications of a potential mass adoption of today's most popular eBook stores. Gone are the days of being able to buy a book anonymously, share it with your friends without getting sued, and not risk having it stolen from you by the guy you bought it from.

[Erik1984]

While the environmentalist in me rejoices in the death of the dead tree format, I'm very worried about the implications of a potential mass adoption of today's most popular eBook stores. Gone are the days of being able to buy a book anonymously, share it with your friends without getting sued, and not risk having it stolen from you by the guy you bought it from.

This.

[madjr]

While the environmentalist in me rejoices in the death of the dead tree format, I'm very worried about the implications of a potential mass adoption of today's most popular eBook stores. Gone are the days of being able to buy a book anonymously, share it with your friends without getting sued, and not risk having it stolen from you by the guy you bought it from.

DRM free and indie books / audio books.

yep they exist!

[BeRoot ReBoot]

DRM free and indie books / audio books.

yep they exist!

Yes, but the overwhelming majority of eBook customers get them from Amazon, Apple and Google. My point isn't that they don't exist, my point is that they'll be a sidenote that the DRM-peddlers and enablers can point to in order to point out that they exist. With all the big publishers and all major new releases crippled by DRM, the alternative may as well not exist as far as most people are concerned.

[Grenage]

You can educate, but the convenience of more quality books, with a very fast and easy browse-purchase-read path... most people will think "well it's only a few quid".

After all, how much is one's time worth, and how highly does one value convenience? Looking at the world around me, I'd say very.

Me; I'm still reading books like Sherlock Holmes, and Moby d i c k, but for Sci-fi pickings, you've got to be a bit more modern.

Edit: "Moby ****" Oh c'mon!

[mips]

Judging by some of the prices on ebooks, I'm not sure who the winners are. If a book is £5 physical and £5 digital, I'll take the physical on principle - at least I can pass the book on. I've seen some ebooks cost more!

Hopefully that will change,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/08/us-apple-ebooks-idUSBRE82715J20120308
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/12/ebook-price-fixing-eu_n_1338582.html

And in other news Britannica goes totally digital,
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/03/14/encyclopaediabritannica-web-idINDEE82D0B220120314

[forrestcupp]

Judging by some of the prices on ebooks, I'm not sure who the winners are. If a book is £5 physical and £5 digital, I'll take the physical on principle - at least I can pass the book on. I've seen some ebooks cost more!I think we know who the real winner is. Even so, I still will buy ebooks because it's convenient to have a whole library in the palm of my hand. The only person who would read my books would be my wife, and she can just link her tablet or phone up to my account temporarily. I think you're allowed to have 3 or 4 devices linked to an account at a time.


While the environmentalist in me rejoices in the death of the dead tree format, I'm very worried about the implications of a potential mass adoption of today's most popular eBook stores. Gone are the days of being able to buy a book anonymously, share it with your friends without getting sued, and not risk having it stolen from you by the guy you bought it from.The environmentalist in me (which isn't very big) wonders how the one time environmental impact of a replaceable tree used to make a book compares to the power it requires to run an e-reader for the life of the same book. Honestly, I believe that it's a convenience thing, and not an environmental one.

But I agree with what you're saying there.


Hopefully that will change,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/08/us-apple-ebooks-idUSBRE82715J20120308
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/12/ebook-price-fixing-eu_n_1338582.htmlHopefully that will cause a change in all of the ebook stores.

[BeRoot ReBoot]

Honestly, I believe that it's a convenience thing, and not an environmental one.

Of course, but environmental solutions always have to be presented as more convenient to the end-users than the status quo, it's the only way to get normal people to act on them.

As for the power usage, consider transportation. Carrying my entire library on a flash drive versus towing it around in a couple of lorries.

[forrestcupp]

As for the power usage, consider transportation. Carrying my entire library on a flash drive versus towing it around in a couple of lorries.

True, but I'm only going to be carrying around what I'm currently reading at the time, which would easily fit in a bag. So that's not going to use any more transportation energy than an e-reader.

By the end of a book's life, the tree that it took to make will easily be replaced. It's debatable as to whether so-called "fossil fuels" required to generate power will ever be renewed. As of right now, most power is generated with non-renewable sources that cause a lot of pollution. e-readers are made to not consume much power, but I'll bet over the life of a book, that adds up. I bet I could find a book in my house that's close to a hundred years old.

I still believe that a paper book is more environmentally friendly than an e-book. Especially since a lot of wood and paper comes from tree farms where trees are continually grown and harvested. That doesn't make me want to give up my e-books, though.

[SemiExpert]

Books have a very minimal environmental impact in comparison to facial tissues or toilet paper. Personal hygiene paper products will persist long after paper reading materials have disappeared from common use. You can't blow you nose into a Nook and you can't use a Kobo to wipe.....you get the picture. The real environmental virtue of paper book or periodical is that after it has been printed, it can be loaned, gifted, resold, or even recycled, most likely into toilet paper.

[BeRoot ReBoot]

The real environmental virtue of paper book or periodical is that after it has been printed, it can be loaned, gifted, resold, or even recycled, most like into toilet paper.

If we could get rid of Digital Restrictions Management, together with implementing a more sane copyright policy, most of that would also hold true for eBooks. And you don't need to recycle them, because they're nothing but magnetised bits on a hard disk or open transistors in a flash drive in the first place.

[mips]

Lets assume all printed matter eventually dies out, what happens to our libraries?

[BeRoot ReBoot]

Lets assume all printed matter eventually dies out, what happens to our libraries?

They become properly backed up and more easily searchable and accessible, and people can "borrow" books permanently without needing to worry about bringing them back or the libraries worrying about inventory.

[forrestcupp]

Lets assume all printed matter eventually dies out, what happens to our libraries?

With DRM, they could still exist digitally. Kindle already has a system where you can loan books for a certain period of time and it becomes unavailable on your devices when it is loaned. That kind of system could be adapted for libraries if it ever came to that.

[Thewhistlingwind]

While the environmentalist in me rejoices in the death of the dead tree format, I'm very worried about the implications of a potential mass adoption of today's most popular eBook stores. Gone are the days of being able to buy a book anonymously, share it with your friends without getting sued, and not risk having it stolen from you by the guy you bought it from.

This this and this. The potential impact on the distribution of information scares me greatly.



The environmentalist in me (which isn't very big) wonders how the one time environmental impact of a replaceable tree used to make a book compares to the power it requires to run an e-reader for the life of the same book. Honestly, I believe that it's a convenience thing, and not an environmental one.


Well, the energy expenditure only exists while you have the device on. So technically the energy usage of the book is the trace amount of electricity used to store it + time read in seconds * power consumption of the device per second.

[madjr]

Yes, but the overwhelming majority of eBook customers get them from Amazon, Apple and Google. My point isn't that they don't exist, my point is that they'll be a sidenote that the DRM-peddlers and enablers can point to in order to point out that they exist. With all the big publishers and all major new releases crippled by DRM, the alternative may as well not exist as far as most people are concerned.

Yes, but we need to forget about the "majority", since they seem perfectly happy with those type of systems.

We need to focus on our own niches.

[mips]

They become properly backed up and more easily searchable and accessible, and people can "borrow" books permanently without needing to worry about bringing them back or the libraries worrying about inventory.

If that is the case why would anybody bother buying ebooks if you can borrow them permanently.

I just remembered that the Singapore (or was that Malaysian?) library has a massive ebook collection.

[spynappels]

With DRM, they could still exist digitally. Kindle already has a system where you can loan books for a certain period of time and it becomes unavailable on your devices when it is loaned. That kind of system could be adapted for libraries if it ever came to that.

Does this work for any book, or only specific books which have this feature enabled?

[Grenage]

The distributed ebook/scanner groups are quite good, especially if one has some free time to dedicate. There's hope for the old books yet!

[forrestcupp]

Does this work for any book, or only specific books which have this feature enabled?

I think right now it only works for certain books. But there's no reason it wouldn't be possible to adapt that system in the future if there were ever a need for digital libraries.

[spynappels]

I think right now it only works for certain books. But there's no reason it wouldn't be possible to adapt that system in the future if there were ever a need for digital libraries.

Ah ok, I was thinking I'd missed something, I knew you could lend books to others if the publisher allowed it but it'd be cool if this was available by default.

[forrestcupp]

Ah ok, I was thinking I'd missed something, I knew you could lend books to others if the publisher allowed it but it'd be cool if this was available by default.

Yes it would. From my understanding, there are still a lot of publishers who are willing to have ebooks, but they are stuck in an old school mentality. They don't want us lending their books because they think it means they won't make money off of a sale.

I think there are cases when lending a book might open up opportunities for new sales that they wouldn't have gotten. I know I've bought hard copy books before because someone loaned them to me and I wanted my own copy.

[spynappels]

I think there are cases when lending a book might open up opportunities for new sales that they wouldn't have gotten. I know I've bought hard copy books before because someone loaned them to me and I wanted my own copy.

I've done the same, and I've also bought books because I was loaned a book by the same author and I really enjoyed it. Hopefully they'll catch on eventually...

[SemiExpert]

Lets assume all printed matter eventually dies out, what happens to our libraries?

What exactly is the purpose of the average local libary? To maintain a website where they loan ebooks through Overdrive? Libraries are increasingly run solely for the benefit of the librarians.

[sp-1070]

I love books
books ftw.

I have had an ipad 2 with a <snip> of ebooks and never will i read one again.
Reading a book in a warm chamber with some music and not to sharp lights beats electronical everytime.
Of course even this is a point different to all readers..(sorry for the bad english)

[Grenage]

Of course even this is a point different to all readers..(sorry for the bad english)

Quite so; you can't compare an e-ink screen to a general tablet.

[thatguruguy]

With DRM, they could still exist digitally. Kindle already has a system where you can loan books for a certain period of time and it becomes unavailable on your devices when it is loaned. That kind of system could be adapted for libraries if it ever came to that.

It already has been. The OverDrive Media Console (http://www.overdrive.com/software/omc/) (available for both iPad and android), taps into various libraries, at least here in the U.S. As it happens, my local library system is a member library, and I can check out books for 2 weeks at a time. When the time expires, the book is "returned" to the library, and automatically deletes itself from my tablet. It's pretty neat, actually.

[MisterGaribaldi]

I'm all for the convenience that technology brings to the medium of books, papers, etc., but I agree with what's been said earlier: I'm very anti-DRM, I don't like being controlled or restricted in what I do with my own purchased property, and as for the "environmental impact"... Oh, give me a break.

[wolfen69]

Gone are the days of being able to buy a book anonymously
I can go to Barnes & Noble or any other book store and do just that.


share it with your friends without getting sued
Got any examples of someone getting sued for sharing a book? Never heard of it.

[forrestcupp]

It already has been. The OverDrive Media Console (http://www.overdrive.com/software/omc/) (available for both iPad and android), taps into various libraries, at least here in the U.S. As it happens, my local library system is a member library, and I can check out books for 2 weeks at a time. When the time expires, the book is "returned" to the library, and automatically deletes itself from my tablet. It's pretty neat, actually.

Wow. That's really cool. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Shazaam]

Paper books don't require a power source. :)

Things that come to my mind on the subject of books-

A classic...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Enough_at_Last

Library that's completely digital (think Krell)...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Planet