Friday, February 18, 2011

Books and Personal Libraries

Heyo.

It's been a while. I was going to do another cooking post, but when I went to get the potatoes, they were nasty looking. I was shocked that they were dead after only 2 weeks of rotting in the floor of the pantry. Oh well. Will get more potatoes soon.

I've been wondering something for a while that I want to ask.

For those of you with eReaders, do you still buy normal books? Paperbacks, Hardcovers, etc? Do you buy digital formats of books you already own?

Personally, I do. I've been slowly building a digital library that mirrors my physical one. Why? Because of the shelves. I want to have shelves FULL of books. I want people to see that I read, and what I've read. I want to be able to lend a copy of a book to a friend and still be able to read it. I want to have a house someday that has a full wall of nothing but books. And then, another. Until it's a room.

If anything, I am more inclined to keep up this current trend of buying books I own because of what happened with Borders this week. It got me thinking: What if Barnes and Noble went under some day? Sure, I could buy from Amazon and strip the DRM out of their books for use on my device, but what about the opposite? If my nook finally dies, I lose a LOT of digital books forever (note: make a backup of those books right now). I guess that's the risk of tying in with a specific company. If they go under, they can take my library with them.

So yeah. What about you? How do you feel about owning 2 copies of the same books?

4 comments:

  1. Hmph, your blog just deleted my super long comment. The short version: books I love, I buy physical copies of. Books I'm indifferent to, Kindle only. Books I REALLY love, both versions. The Kindle does make it really easy, though, to give in to the temptation of instant gratification, so a few days ago, I finished a new paperback I loved, so bought the second one on my Kindle. I hate owning series of books across platforms, though, so I'll eventually buy that first one on Kindle, too.

    Blog post forthcoming.

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  2. Actually, that does bring up a point I forgot to make. I won't buy another copy of a book I hate. Or haven't been able to finish yet. Like Dune. I just can't stand Dune and I know I won't buy 2 copies of it. I only have the one copy of it because I refuse to get rid of a book I haven't read yet, even if I get bored to death by it.

    For the most part, I will buy a book I'm unfamiliar with (such as Brent Weeks' Night Angel Trilogy) on a whim, then add them to a list of "buy a physical copy" if I like them or not. But then, I have the Wheel of Time books. I already owned 12 of the books in the series when the 12th came out. I felt that I had to buy both versions of the 13th so the library would have them all in one format, though I also bought a digital copy to read it because the hardback would crush my chest when I tried to read it at night. :\

    And as for my blog deleting your post... well, it wouldn't be my blog if it didn't slap you in the soul every now and then. You're welcome :D

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  3. i don't have a kindle or nook, i am scared to buy one because I dont want to have only digital copies. Like you said I want a room full of books when i finally have my own house. Don't you feel bad for paying twice for something? I cannot fathom that. Though, Lugging 2 books around is annoying (sometimes i dont want to read one of them so i read the other one at work on my break)

    ahhhhhhhhh!!!! but those nooks are cute too.

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  4. That's pretty much why I still buy physical books. People think that digital stuff is infallible, but it is dangerous to have something that can be destroyed so easily. A book at least takes SOME effort to kill. I don't think B&N will go under in the near future, but there is that risk of losing all of my digital library. That paranoia is there.

    I don't like paying twice for the same thing. But after seeing pirated versions of ebooks, I feel that paying is the only option. The quality on most of them are so awful that I'm doing myself, and the author, a disservice by even looking at them.

    There's also a few authors who still haven't put their stuff in a digital format (Rowling). I can respect their decision, but I don't have to like it.

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