I’m tired of hearing how I am old-fashioned because I still prefer to buy printed books instead of getting with the program and buying a Kindle, or some other eBook reader. There are a couple of real simple reason for this: First, while the prices may be slightly cheaper on eBooks, the cost is offset by the purchase price of the device, which usually costs several hundred dollars. Second, there is no standard file format, which means that when you buy a reader and put books on it, you are tied to that device and if you break the reader, you lose your books. Third, the books are not transferable – you can’t loan them out to a friend without loaning out your reader.
Hey, that bookshelf full of books I’ve got? I don’t have to worry about the books suddenly becoming unreadable if I decide to redo the lighting in my house. It looks like Amazon’s once-famed Kindle is not doing so hot now. Not just because Apple has a competing product, but they can’t even control their own vendors. Not only that, but I can always loan out my paper books, I don’t have to worry about breaking them and I don’t need to re-buy them every time I get a new book shelf.
Until Amazon and the eBook proponents solve these problems to my satisfaction, I’m not interested in the notion.
Keith on Tap 