Being a discussion of the various merits and drawbacks of physical books and e-books

I just finished Dayton Ward's Agents Of Influence (and really enjoyed it; I'm rarely sanguine when Treklit is set during TOS, but I thoroughly enjoyed many aspects of this novel), and I noticed something happening with the cover--at the bottom--and the spine--again, at the bottom, wrapping around to the back cover.

There is a "laminate" sheath that is peeling up from the bottom cover. I had not noticed this "plastic coating" until I started to feel it when I was holding the book and it was beginning to peel.

Is this happening to anyone else's copy? I was curious if anyone on the "inside", who might visit this site, knew if this was or was going to be a part of the Gallery line's construction of the trades. Or is this just a one-off for this publication?

Donnie

 

That's quite common with all paperback books. Always has been.

 

Side-effect of wear and tear on cheap "pulp" binding...

If you want a book to last (virtually) forever, get hard bound books.

 

I think I would buy hard bound Trek lit if they existed. Alas . . . .

Donnie

 

Oh, yeah. I pounced on that.
Donnie

 

I know that with TLTE I found that the spine was wearing in a spot I hardly touched.

 

If you want the books to not fall apart, buy eBooks.

 

Not the same.

 

They are the same. The content of the eBooks is the same as the pBooks.

 

Not even close.

 

I've found it surprisingly comfortable to read e-books on my phone. It's handy to be able to read anywhere without needing a light source overhead/behind, so I can walk around more when I read. It's also handy to be able to tap a word and automatically look it up. Plus, of course, it's great for library books when the libraries are closed due to a pandemic.

 

Sure, if you just want to read the book and move on, then yes, e-books are a valid alternative. But for those who actually want to own a physical book itself, then the e-books aren't really an option at all. A viewpoint I imagine is shared by many, given books are one form of media where the sales of the physical version actually do rival or even surpass the digital version.

 

Also physical versions you don’t have to worry about running out of battery power and you can read them anywhere. Plus there’s the tactile sense that pulls you into the story that digital doesn’t have. Also the imperfections of the physical—cover cut off kilter, the printer running low of ink on a page.

 

Both have their merits and their drawbacks. Everything does. That's why it's good to be flexible and open to multiple options. I don't understand why some people insist on manufacturing some nonsensical ideological war over this issue. There is no need to limit yourself to just one format. Some books are easier to find in one format than others, so the more formats you're willing to read in, the more books you get to read.

I can understand having a preferred format to read in. But sometimes you have to settle for less than your ideal. That shouldn't be hard to understand. I've read lots of books in formats that were less than ideal -- old decaying paperbacks that were falling apart or smelled bad, big heavy hardcovers that were unwieldy to hold, library books whose previous borrowers left sticky stains on the pages. Once I bought a book that had a silverfish in the spine -- ewwww. Lots of books are not what we'd prefer them to be. But we read them anyway.

I recently borrowed some Avatar/The Legend of Korra art books from the Hoopla digital library. The e-book format was less than ideal for viewing an art book, especially since there was a glitch that caused the 2-page spreads to be reproduced too small so I couldn't zoom in for a closer look. If I could afford it, I'd much rather buy them in print. But you know what? I still read the e-books, because that was what was available and I at least got most of the benefit of the experience. The perfect is the enemy of the good.

 

Sorry, hate to disagree with you but there is a major difference between physical and digital. I bought the “Slings and Arrows” series a few years back. I tried to read it, but it was missing something that physical adds to books. Reading “Slings and Arrows” felt as interesting in digital as reading a PDF for a videogame. It’s stale, industrial, cold, homogenized, pasteurized. With physical there’s that freshness, warmth and pleasantness. Something to tickle more than one sense.

 

Yes, of course there's a difference. But the most important lesson of Star Trek is that different is not wrong -- that the differences between things are something to celebrate and embrace, not to condemn and fight over. Everything has its own distinct strengths and weaknesses, and the strengths of one can balance out the weaknesses of the other, and thus we're better off embracing differences rather than using them as excuses for picking needless fights.

What format did you read them in? As I said, I've recently discovered that reading books on the Kindle or Overdrive app on my phone is quite comfortable and enjoyable, much more so than reading from my desktop screen. "A few years" is generations of advancement in technology. And holding a phone or tablet in your hands isn't that different a tactile experience from holding a book. Heck, some phones or tablets today even unfold like books.

And again, so what if it's less than ideal? That doesn't mean it should be avoided altogether. It's silly and pointless to paint this as some kind of all-or-nothing choice. That's not the way it works. I like print books when they're available, but I'm not going to refuse to read a book altogether if it's only available in a less-than-ideal format, because that would be stupid. You can't achieve anything in life if you refuse to settle for less than your absolute ideals.

 

I was reading them on my phone and tablet. Not even close to reading a physical. Industrial, cold, stale, homogenized, pasteurized.
I think that’s why we see Sam Cogley, Jim Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard reading physical books in the movies and series, even though space is limited on a starship, those guys still haul around their physical libraries because digital can not beat physical books.

 

I think it's pretty much a matter of individual preference and, for me, what my purpose is in reading the book. It took me a little while to get used to it, but I really like my kindle for reading for pleasure - I rarely reread books that I read for pleasure, so I eliminate having books sitting around that I'm unlikely to reread, and I like the fact that choosing to read the book on kindle helps reduce the amount of resources used in making the physical books. For academic reading, however, I prefer physical copies - I really want to be able to mark them up and write my comments in the margins. I imagine everyone has their own preferences based on individual habits and peculiarities.