E-Books
Ξ February 5th, 2010 | → 0 Comments | ∇ General |
I love books and I’m also a real tech geek, so the idea of e-book readers is both scintilating and off putting. I really like the idea of having one device that can be used to access all of my favourite books. The down side of this is the hefty price tag (10-15 bucks) per e-book. I can’t imagine paying to put the 400 or so paperback and hardcover books I have sitting on my shelves at home on to a reader. Reclaiming the shelf space is a nice idea, but certainly not practical or cost effective.
With all the DRM on e-books, there would most certainly not be a ‘used e-book’ store where people could sell e-books to other people at a discounted price. One of the things I love about physical books, aside from the smell, texture, and physical experience, is that they can migrate from person to person through used book stores, or regifting. I just don’t see that happening with e-books.
The thing that really gets me is that the price of e-books will generally be higher than that of a printed book. I just don’t get that at all. With cheaper publishing costs, we should be saving a relative amount of money, but that doesn’t seem to be in the plans from publishers.
Another issue that came up in a conversation is the universality of e-books to be read on different e-book platforms. Currently there is no common standard, so e-books are generally available on only one platform.
I’ll certainly be waiting to even think about an e-book reader until such time as common standards for e-book readers are in place, e-books are more reasonably priced than their printed counterparts, and DRM is such that an e-book that I buy can be disposed of or transferred in any way I see fit.
I just don’t see that happening any time soon.
