iBooks

[alterin]

Since I got my new iPhone, I've introduced myself to the iBooks store. Reading on my phone isn't the best reading experience. The strain on my eyes is noticable if I read for any good amount of time. But I've read more books in the past few weeks than I've read in a year. It's just so convenient! Books are big. All of these e-readers on the market that would be less straining on my eyes than my phone are still big. But my phone? My phone is tiny, and I always have it with me. There are so many times while out and about that you have some downtime, and since I have books on my phone, it's so easy to fill that time. It's ridiculously convenient, and thus I'm reading more.

I feel kinda guilty though. I shouldn't be spending money, and if I went to the library, I'd be doing all my reading for free. Course, I wouldn't actually get as much/any reading done. And if I bought a book, afterwards I could sell it. Or I could loan it out to friends. Or I could exchange it with someone for another book. It's a little bit absurd that publishers are charging so much for an ebook. It's the same price as a paperback, yet the reading experience isn't as good. And after I read it, I have no versatility. I can't loan it to anybody. I can't do anything with it. I've read it, I've consumed it, I've wasted it. And publishers are making almost all profit off of it! They aren't paying production costs per book, and they're taking a larger cut per sale. They're ripping us off. And it's annoying.

Comments

[mudo.livejournal.com]

Yes, ebooks at anything more than about $3.00 is a rip off, I think. Particularly the way things are licensed.

If you want to explore some good reading material, try some of the many places that offer free books for download, such as Project Gutenberg or ManyBooks.net. All of that stuff is going to be public domain though -- but there are some fantastic books there.

I had to watch a video in my Intro to Computers class last week called "The Paperback Computer." It described how back when books had to be made by hand, they were rare and precious. People would defend single copies of books with their very lives. Later, monasteries would chain them in their libraries with a chain just long enough so that people had to sit there, guarded, in order to read the books. They pointed out that sometimes a family's entire fortune could be based on the possession of a single book, and that only the most intelligent could read or gain access to books. The video then went on to compare the growth of the early computer (huge, unwieldy, hard to transport, very limited user base with highly skilled attendants) to how common books are today ... paperbacks a dime a dozen. The video posited the question of how it would be when computers were so prolific as paperback books. Of course, the film was made in the early '90s and only guessed at some of the things we have today.

/don't ask me why

[alterin]

I just went to target... and every book I've recently purchased on my phone was a dollar cheaper. And I guarantee the publisher made a lot less money every single book sold with a lot more effort. The pricing model is just silly. Adapt or find yourself slowly becoming obsolete.

Oddly enough for an english major, there's a lot of classical literature that I'm not at all interested in. The pacing has just become outdated. I find the history and evolution of the literature more interesting than the literature itself. But there are some that I definitely need to check out which I'll get around to I guess eventually.

As it is, I just purchased the last of the Sookie Stackhouse novels(the books True Blood is based off of). I'll finish those, and afterwards I'll stick to the free novels on iBooks, and ones that are at a reasonable price only. Speak with the wallet.