The end of physical books: Do you believe it?

[dark_b]

Anybody seen that obnoxious e-reader commercial (can't remember if it was Nook or Kindle or what) where they basically make book readers feel dumb for liking books better? It was basically another "I'm a Mac. And I'm a PC" ripoff. But still, made me feel uncomfortable.
Now would be a good time to re-read Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World, and start taking notes...

can you post a link to the commercial?

thanks

 

[jaganar]

I don't think book stores are going out of business do to digital books though, simply from websites like amazon undercutting their prices on physical books. It's like netflix, brick and mortar stores have a hard time competing.

Also in other countries, things are not like in the united states.

Germany has bookstores all over the friggen place. However, books have to be sold for the suggested retail price. Bookstores arent able to undercut eachother, meaning that smaller mom and pop shops can survive alongside giant bookstores.

You don't get any good deals I guess, but it seems their system works. It helps that on average Germans read far more than Americans,though.

true enough , even here in nyc , we have strands , on the college block in THE VILLAGE ( barnes / college, barnes/ regular books , Strands / used bookstore) if the bookstores were FRAGGING eachother like the major chains we would be in trouble. thank god they arent , because Strands has been around for years and shows no sign of falling by the wayside.

also HAWK , (

Spoiler

THATS RACIST that germans read more than americans

) just kidding

 

[redhawk23]

I had a German professor last semester who was pretty much offended that out of the list of famous German authors that we were learning about, no one in the class had read anything by them. She was like "These men are pretty much the German eqivalent of Mark Twain!" She was mortified to learn that more than half the class had made it to college without reading any Twain either. lol.

 

[kedrell]

There's something slightly uncomfortable about reading a screen(because it's backlit or whatever) that will never be able to replace reading a book to me. Especially if you're in bed and just want to read it. The backlit screen just ends up putting me to sleep.

 

[Prison Mike]

I have a Kindle and read my books on there but I still LOVE going to the bookstore. I could spend hours there. The only things I usually buy there are graphic novels (the last one I bought was last summer). There's a Barnes and Noble about 10 minutes from me so that's where I like to go and chill. Do you think they would kick me out if I brought my Kindle and read it at a Barnes and Noble?

 

[AndThePickles]

There are still a lot of Barnes and Nobles around where I live. Most Borders have closed, though, which sucks because they had better prices! I would be extremely upset if books stopped being printed, because I refuse to purchase an e-reader. I love having a physical book and going to pick it out at a bookstore.

 

[ComicChick]

i buy from Borders online a lot. They have a 40 percent off deal going on right now.

 

[Knight Rise]

i hope not. because hes a situation my old middle school just had: ISTEP is this testing thing you have to go through to comprehend your knowledge and learning abilities. it used to be a written booklet. now its digital and guess what? first time trying it, it glitched the ENTIRE system and screwed up the answers. big mistake

so books should remain physical ALWAYS

 

[Spider-Aziz]

No
The end physical comics maybe, not the end of physical books

 

[Knight Rise]

No
The end physical comics maybe, not the end of physical books

No to both of those. Non physical comics makes me shudder

 

[tzarinna]

Yeah, that's definitely a no go for me.

 

[Manic]

Let's say there's a bunch of books I want to read. Do I buy those books, or do I buy the ebooks AND spend an additional $100-$200 on an eReader?

That's a big part of what makes me dislike eReaders: the price. It's not like when we made the transitions from records to tapes to CD's to mp3s. Music has always needed an additional device to play it on. Books have always been self contained. If you bought a book, you didn't need to buy anything else to read it on. I feel like eBooks are trying to trick me into spending money on an unnecessary, expensive peripheral.

 

[AndThePickles]

I also feel that since you aren't getting a physical copy of the book, e-books should be much cheaper. But they aren't, so what's the point?

 

[Spider-Aziz]

I like the feel of papers in my hands, I think people prefer this more when it comes to books
Also, you can't easily mark where you last stopped with an ebook

I don't think people are ready to give those up

 

[jessica001]

I am afraid of posting any commercial link as i am afraid of doing so that it will be banned.

 

[childeroland]

I like the smell of a new book. And reading comics online hurts my eyes.

 

[ComicChick]

I am afraid of posting any commercial link as i am afraid of doing so that it will be banned.

what are you planning on posting a link to? if it's relevant it might not be a problem

 

[lespaul59]

Anybody seen that obnoxious e-reader commercial (can't remember if it was Nook or Kindle or what) where they basically make book readers feel dumb for liking books better? It was basically another "I'm a Mac. And I'm a PC" ripoff. But still, made me feel uncomfortable.
Now would be a good time to re-read Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World, and start taking notes...

If your talking about the same commercial I saw tonight where the woman is saying books are better because you can dog ear then yes I finaly saw it for the first time. And I have to say rather than making me interrested in the product it kinda turned me against it.

I also agree that internet pricing is hurting bookstores, I would also add in prices at stores like Wal Mart and Target. Why is somebody gonna go to Barnes and Noble and pay $25-30 for a new hardback when you can get it on the internet or at WM or Target for $7-10 cheaper. And one thing I don't understand is why B&N has way cheaper prices on some books online. Like when I first looked at the A Game of Thrones 4 book box set at my local B&N they have it at full lsit price of $35.96. So I was like well I wait and see what the price is online thinking it was gonna be a price difference of $5-10 at most. And personaly I would rather spend that little extra and support any local store rather than order something. But when I looked B&N.com has the box set for $19.78 and was surprised that it was just over $16 cheaper. Even though I'm willing to pay a little extra and support a local store, $16 cheaper is hard to pass up. I've never really understood why B&N's web site is so much cheaper in some cases than their stores. You would think theywould at least be a little cheap on the store prices.

 

[Mario_Galaxy]

I'll stick to the physical thing. I, like many in this thread, love the feeling of holding a new book in my hand, flipping through it a page at a time, and then stacking it with the collection of completed books in my room after I finish it.

 

[moviedoors]

Honest-to-gosh REAL lovers of books will always settle for the physical copies of stuff.

So now we're applying the ultimate in fanboy nonsense, the true-fan-criteria, to people who like to read on a Kindle? I thought it was the content, not the format, that made books worthwhile.

I seriously doubt we'll see the death of physical books. Decline? Sure, but it's not going away in our lifetimes.

 

[Prison Mike]

Anybody seen that obnoxious e-reader commercial (can't remember if it was Nook or Kindle or what) where they basically make book readers feel dumb for liking books better? It was basically another "I'm a Mac. And I'm a PC" ripoff. But still, made me feel uncomfortable.
Now would be a good time to re-read Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World, and start taking notes...

Is this the commercial you're referring to?

 

[jaganar]

So now we're applying the ultimate in fanboy nonsense, the true-fan-criteria, to people who like to read on a Kindle? I thought it was the content, not the format, that made books worthwhile.

I seriously doubt we'll see the death of physical books. Decline? Sure, but it's not going away in our lifetimes.

well i dont think a REGULAR joe would spend 200 dollars on a kindle/whatever is out. not that we are stupid , its just we rather not be bothered with something that we cant enjoy by turning the pages or highlighting our favorite part.

with a DIGI , u have to worry about the screen cracking and being overly cautious (walking on eggshells) a book you can drop it on the floor by accident and GUESS WHAT ... it is still GOOD unless u end up dropping it in a papershredder

i cant tell u how many times i dropped my cd player and it still works, u drop an ipod and the crap skips or refuses to play any of the material u had on it. you may also end up with a crack on the LCD and we all know how much that costs.

2) the point about BN having cheaper prices is pure bs, ok because for years borders has used coupons as well as the internet i cant give a reason why BN are still around they had the same store setup.
the thing about BN is that they also make a majority of cash via the people who sell their old books at druglord prices (by way of commision). they move in and if there is a mom and pop bookstore the poor biz has to deal with their crap, i have seen it happen up where my mother lives in upstate ny.

plus if you pay attention to the prices and supposed bargains that they offer its only a dollar less (kingdom hearts 2 collectors guide & vampire bloodlines HC as an example).

im not sure if you send it to teh local store will they get teh sale or what which is why i rarely buy from BN.

 

[Obi-Ron]

50 years from now you will be able to pick a book you bought today and start reading. They probably won't have any idea what a "kindle" was.

 

[hopefuldreamer]

I don't mind doing my reading on a computer, but I hope real books don't go away.

Like Giles said in Buffy 'knowledge should be tangible'

 

[moviedoors]

well i dont think a REGULAR joe would spend 200 dollars on a kindle/whatever is out. not that we are stupid , its just we rather not be bothered with something that we cant enjoy by turning the pages or highlighting our favorite part.

with a DIGI , u have to worry about the screen cracking and being overly cautious (walking on eggshells) a book you can drop it on the floor by accident and GUESS WHAT ... it is still GOOD unless u end up dropping it in a papershredder

i cant tell u how many times i dropped my cd player and it still works, u drop an ipod and the crap skips or refuses to play any of the material u had on it. you may also end up with a crack on the LCD and we all know how much that costs.

2) the point about BN having cheaper prices is pure bs, ok because for years borders has used coupons as well as the internet i cant give a reason why BN are still around they had the same store setup.
the thing about BN is that they also make a majority of cash via the people who sell their old books at druglord prices (by way of commision). they move in and if there is a mom and pop bookstore the poor biz has to deal with their crap, i have seen it happen up where my mother lives in upstate ny.

plus if you pay attention to the prices and supposed bargains that they offer its only a dollar less (kingdom hearts 2 collectors guide & vampire bloodlines HC as an example).

im not sure if you send it to teh local store will they get teh sale or what which is why i rarely buy from BN.

I don't see what any of that has to do with being a "REAL reader." My girlfriend loves to read, she's a regular Jill, and she got a Kindle for Christmas. She loves it. We ain't rich by any stretch either. We're just about downright poor, and a dollar off is a dollar off. The downloads are convenient too. Also, I can upload a kajillion public domain ebooks to it for exactly zero dollars. Yeah, it has a disadvantages, but show me a piece of technology that doesn't. If someone is reading at all, I don't see how that can be anything but a good thing, regardless of the format. I just don't see where someone gets off calling someone who uses a Kindle for a portion of their reading time "not a real reader." I find that downright insulting.