E-Books or Paper Books

[Enterpriserules]

E-books for me, I hate paperbacks.

[JWolf]

I prefer eBooks for a few reasons. One is I only have to take one Reader with me. When I finish a book, I have more waiting to be read. Also, the prices for most Star Trek eBooks are cheaper then the pBook and the eBooks are available when a lot of Star Trek books are out of print.

[Reanok]

I buy Paper books E books are too expensive.

[Wereghost]

EBooks all the way for me now. My Kindle is smaller than most paperbacks and has adjustable font size, which is very handy for someone who's had cataract operations.

[Avro Arrow]

I voted combination.

For Trek books, I'm still 100% paper, except for eBook exclusives, obviously. (Well, OK, I bought the Destiny omnibus in eBook format, but that's in addition to the original paperback releases.)

For financial reasons, I've being trying to severely cut back my non-Trek book spending, and opting for the library instead. However, for the few non-Trek books I still do buy, they have recently started to skew about 80% eBook vs. about 20% paper.

[NightJim]

In general I'm 50/50 but with Star Trek I'm 100% ebooks because the collection will get out of hand if it was physical.

That said I just bought 2 old New Frontier paperback because I didn't think they were available on Kindle, after I ordered them I found out that the UK kindle store has terrible organisation for Star Trek books, and they were there all along.

[Stoek]

1: I live in Outer Bumfuckistan, so if I want books I either have to order them or wait for the rare times I get into an actual "city". With my kindle I can get them instantly.

2: With a little careful watching I can get a lot of books for free or deeply deeply reduced. This takes the sting out of paying full price (or these days near full price) for trek books.

3: Space and storage issues.

4: The built in dictionary.

[Sakrysta]

Combination. I'm a collector, so I want physical copies of the books I want. But I do almost all of my actual reading now on my phone, and to me, it's worth the $8 for the ease of holding my phone vs. holding a book open and the convenience of having access to the book on my phone wherever I go, since the phone goes everywhere I go.

I will say that this was not my position a year or so ago. The convenience factor finally won me over to ebooks. Oh, and as Stoek mentioned, one of the best features is the dictionary/Internet search feature. I love being able to click on, say, a species name, click on the Google option, and go right to Memory Alpha/Beta and see a screen cap or other picture to be able to visualize an alien character. SO cool!

[Ktrek]

For me it's probably 50/50. I buy every fiction Star Trek book published and most of the non-fiction as well in hard copies. I actually tried a few years back to go all digital on Star Trek books when I bought my first ereader (original Nook). I just couldn't stand my paperback collection not being complete and so went and bought all the copies I had missed (a few months worth) and got caught up. Almost all my other reading though is ebooks. I enjoy the convenience of having a huge library with me wherever I go and I also find the built in dictionary extremely useful, and at my age the ability to change font size, or style for that matter, has been a huge help.

Kevin

[Gate11au]

I have voted Paperback but that be cos i am a bit of a traditionalist.
I do have all the star trek books on my Ipad in ebook form as many are hard to find or out of print.
So I only read the out of print ones on the Ipad but that may be because it make my eyes hurt when i read for to long.
So paper all the way.

[EddyDrama]

All paper for me. I do intend to shift to eBooks at some point, at least partially as I love to hold a real book in my hands so it might be a stretch that I'd stop reading traditional ink-on-paper books. But for now paperbacks are my thing.

[kirk55555]

All paper. Even if I could afford a reader for ebooks (besides just a cimputer, I don't like just sitting at a computer and reading books) I really like paperbooks. i'm that way about everything. I don't buy digital, ever. Physical media is always going to be the only way I get books, movies, music, and games.

[Paper Moon]

Garrovick wrote:

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I like paper books; I only read e-books right now for works that aren't available on paper. It's not that I have anything against e-books per se, I just prefer having the paper book. If Pocket was to stop publishing paper books I'd switch over with no problem.

This describes my behavior and attitude very accurately (with caveat below).

Therin of Andor wrote:

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As a Star Trek collector, I want the physical book to hold, admire, display, organize, but I've probably overfilled my dedicated Star Trek shrine/room since 1980 and - especially the recent IDW comics - the more recent purchases are stacking up in piles in other rooms. It's out of control.

This (in both the positive and negative respects). I also do prefer having concrete representations of my investments (partly, theoretically, due to their resale value, which is a reflection of my general financial policies, not my specific attitudes towards TrekLit).

Part of my issue with ebooks is that I already spend a lot of time on screens every day, and I have found that reading ebooks cuts out a small but useful part of my day where I'm off-screen.

Of course, part of this issue is that I'm using rather old screens to read; my phone is nearly ancient at this point, and I read on a laptop of similar age. In the years since I bought these items, visual displays have vastly improved and now produce more natural images that are crisper and easier to read.

In a few years, I'll probably buy a (by that point, very out of date) iPad and I suspect I will use ebooks much more then.

[BillJ]

Paper Moon wrote:

---

Part of my issue with ebooks is that I already spend a lot of time on screens every day, and I have found that reading ebooks cuts out a small but useful part of my day where I'm off-screen.

Of course, part of this issue is that I'm using rather old screens to read; my phone is nearly ancient at this point, and I read on a laptop of similar age. In the years since I bought these items, visual displays have vastly improved and now produce more natural images that are crisper and easier to read.

In a few years, I'll probably buy a (by that point, very out of date) iPad and I suspect I will use ebooks much more then.

Skip the iPad and buy a e-ink reader specifically for books. They are much easier on the eyes (I have both an iPad and Kindle Paperwhite) and a dedicated reader is far cheaper.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ I've had the opposite experience - I find e-books are MUCH easier for me to read on an iPad than on a Kindle. And it's one less device you have to worry about.