Books themselves aren’t going anywhere, or so I keep telling myself and fervently hoping despite all the evidence humanity’s collective brains are dissolving into a stew of slop and influence.
I think the only reason they are less popular is because of the year delayed release they have compared to hardcover. I would like to buy non-hardcover, but also not waiting a year for certain stories. I do avoid brand new stories for the most part for this reason.
They’re lighter, cost less, more economical, can take on a plane with less weight thoughts.
They should try parallel releases before just dropping them wholesale.
Edit sequential > parallel too early -.-
I like paperbacks, but I don’t have the physical room for physical books. I have a decent library, but it’s digital, and yes, it’s DRM free. Even with an iPhone, historically considered the more tightly controlled phone, they just work. I open the book on my Mac, then, with my iPhone on the same WiFi network, I open Books on the phone and it’s linked, one tap and my Mac beams it up to the iPhone somehow (Bluetooth? WiFi? Airdrop? Doesn’t matter, it works.) And I can read it on that. Bonus: Don’t need a bookmark. It remembers my place. I can digitally bookmark things but I never use that feature.
Note: Wife and I do have physical books. We just can’t keep getting more. She reads physical and electronic. I’m full digital.
Since you mainly read digital why not get an E-Ink device, battery lasts longer and it is easier on the eyes.
Because I don’t need another device. My iPhone battery lasts all day (it’s a 16 Pro Max). I do agree eInk is easier on the eyes.
I have thought about it. Whenever I think about something like an iPad, the rational part of my mind says “why not just get a reader instead?”. Well, the iPad would do more. Turns out, I don’t need (or even really want) either. Though, my wife has an iPad and it has manga and books on it, but I never feel the need to reach for it over my phone.
For a very long time I’ve realised that my ebook reader didn’t replace hardcover books for me. It just replaced those paperback books that you only intend to read once on an airplane; basically the bailiwick of mass-market-paperbacks.
So, sad as it is, it makes sense that paperbacks are seeing a steep decline. They’re the most susceptible to ebooks.
