E-Books or Paper Books

[Starbreaker]

Went to all ebooks in 2009. I've found that I started to read a lot more. I can slip my Nook in my back pocket, which is a revolution.

 

[DantePD]

I read e-books, but sooner or later I also buy the paperback copy, partially because the sight of a nice full bookshelf is very satisfying and so I have copies to lend out to friends.

 

[Sakrysta]

I can't get over the feeling that e-books aren't completely mine and aren't permanent. I buy e-books for convenience, but if I want to own a book and add it to my collection, I buy a physical copy. I will double-dip on a book to have the ease of reading it on my phone. After all, $8 (my upward limit on an e-book) is just about a fast food meal. That's not a lot in the grand scheme, especially if you're not doing your whole collection that way.

 

[JWolf]

One other advantage of Star Trek eBooks vs. Star Trek pBooks is that you get the monthly sales.

 

[Jinn]

At least when you're in the US

 

[mastadge]

e-books are certainly nice for saving space, and easier on the eyes for the books that have smaller print. That said, I mostly use them for potboilers -- it bugs me that all the design and formatting choices that go into a book are essentially discarded for the ebook, and I wish they were better at offering the option to replicate page layout and font options of the print version.

I also find that for some of the older Trek books (not even old, just older, like early 00s) the e-books are riddled with errors -- I guess no one wants to pay for catalog titles to be proofed again after conversion to e-book.

 

[JWolf]

e-books are certainly nice for saving space, and easier on the eyes for the books that have smaller print. That said, I mostly use them for potboilers -- it bugs me that all the design and formatting choices that go into a book are essentially discarded for the ebook, and I wish they were better at offering the option to replicate page layout and font options of the print version.

eBooks are not pBooks. So replicating them doesn't always work.The formatting should be what works for eBooks.

I also find that for some of the older Trek books (not even old, just older, like early 00s) the e-books are riddled with errors -- I guess no one wants to pay for catalog titles to be proofed again after conversion to e-book.

Have you ever downloaded the older Star Trek eBooks? They do get updated with corrections and sometimes formatting changes.

 

[JD]

e-books are certainly nice for saving space, and easier on the eyes for the books that have smaller print. That said, I mostly use them for potboilers -- it bugs me that all the design and formatting choices that go into a book are essentially discarded for the ebook, and I wish they were better at offering the option to replicate page layout and font options of the print version.

I read mostly e-books, and it seems like most of the books where formatting is important, then the e-book will duplicate that format.
Since we revived this thread, I remembered another plus for e-books, I've come across some books that have an "enhanced edition" ebook that have extra content that isn't available in the print editions. For instance, around the time the Cloud Atlas movie came out they released an enhanced e-book that included video interviews or just general behind the scenes footage from the movie.
Some of the e-books I have for series like The Iron Druid Chronicles or the Kate Daniels series will sometimes have an extra short story after the main body of the novel, but I'm not sure if those are exclusive to the e-books or in the paper books too.

 

[Avro Arrow]

For instance, around the time the Cloud Atlas movie came out they released an enhanced e-book that included video interviews or just general behind the scenes footage from the movie.

* Trying to imagine how my e-ink reader would handle video *

I'm guessing... not well.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

All e-books for me.

 

[Kor]

eBooks are not pBooks. So replicating them doesn't always work.The formatting should be what works for eBooks.
...

Agreed. In most cases the page layout is not essential to the storytelling. The text should be formatted best for the particular medium of consumption.

This was one of the problems with early online subscriptions to newspapers. The electronic versions were exact replicas of the paper format, which was very cumbersome and tiresome to navigate.

Kor