Do you ever read printed books

[jbcohen]

Now that you have an electronic book reader do you ever read printed books?  I am trying to get away from printed books but there is one publisher that I deal with that simply has not gotten with the digital revolution as yet so I am forced to read their books in printed form, although I would really prefer to get their titles in electronic form as well.

[MichelleR]

I do, yes.

My preferred way is definitely my Kindle, and a lot of the work I do is also on my Kindle -- but I have years of accumulated books in print. I'm also in the Amazon Vine Program, and any book I select from there is in print.

[ellenoc]

Yes. I don't buy them, but I read quite a few from the library.

[MadCityWriter]

My Kindle is on my iPad, so I use it mostly for travel.  I still read lots of books from the library, and people give me books for birthdays and Christmas.  That's still my preferred bedtime reading.

[BTackitt]

Textbooks... only 1 this semester is on my Kindle. last semester it was 3... sigh..textbooks are so darn BIG and HEAVY!

[LilyWhiteKY]

I still love reading a print book.  I like to highlight favorite/important passages.  And I'll never get over the smell of a really old book.  I have a Robert Frost collection printed in the 1950s.  Smells like heaven. =)

[Meka]

Not since I got my Kindle last year in August.

[flipside]

Yes, I still read books. And publishers sent me a combination of eBooks and print books.

Is there a preference? Depends on my mood. Sometimes I prefer a print book. Sometimes I prefer reading a PDF on my computer monitor. Sometimes I like reading ePubs and Mobi on my iPod Touch. Or my iPad.

I'm an inclusive reader

[twg144]

Interesting answers. For one I like printed books. I have also been posting results of a poll that is being held at FB to aggregate answers and I have to say the printed book wins out over all formats by a large margin. You can see the first results here http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,101582.0.html which I post every few days (I cannot post updates more frequently as it is deleted due to the rules of the board). Of course one needs a few thousand voters, but printed books seem to still be the favored among the majority. Whether they buy or borrow or use the library for these books, I have no way of knowing.

[bxs122]

Only when it is a gift or it is a book that has not yet been made available as eBook.

[Harry Shannon]

I love my books. For me, the Kindle has just replaced mass-market editions. Can't read that print very well these days, for one thing, and didn't always save them for another. The books I want to own I still buy in hardcover, but there are fewer and fewer of them. Don't have any room left on the shelves, for one thing.

[Tony Richards]

I use Kindle for convenience -- vacations, traveling -- and for picking up on new authors or books you cannot get in print. But I still read a lot of paperbacks as well.

[R. M. Reed]

I just finished a huge book, the next-to-last in the Wheel of Time. I got it from the library, I didn't want to buy it. I should look into getting library books on my Kindle. While reading, holding the enormous book, I did wish it was on the Kindle. I also wanted to make the font bigger.

[Sean Patrick Fox]

I voted yes because I do - but very, very rarely. I generally only read print books if I can't find it in electronic format, or if I'm only using it for a reference and can just borrow it from the library. Or if it's a book I don't care about owning and just want to read.

[Todd Trumpet]

Actually, even with the availability of digital books, I still read more paper books...

...almost all of them "pre-owned".  It's a habit I developed years ago - namely, not having to read the latest and greatest when it first came out, particularly as the timeframe between new and used became shorter and shorter with the advent of the internet (Amazon Marketplace, Ebay, etc.) and now the surge of eReaders encouraging many to sell or even donate a good portion of their paper libraries.  Library sales, garage sales, thrift stores - paper books are cheaper than ever...

...if you have a little patience.

Example:  Dan Brown's "THE LOST SYMBOL".  Sure, nobody was paying the fantasy $29.95 cover price for this book even when it was first released, as discounts always abound.  But 3 months after it hit the bookstores, I found a pristine copy at a local library sale for $1 - and there were 2 other copies available!

Okay, the book itself kinda sucked, but you get my point.

Anyway, I know this feast of cheap paper books won't last forever, as fewer and fewer of them will be published with the increasing dominance of eReaders.

But for now, it's a Paper Par-teh!

Todd

[J.R.Tate]

I visit the library regularly. I still like to actually feel a book in my hands. I know it's weird, but I also like the smell of books. (Unless I get a really old, dusty one) LOL.

[acellis]

I use the library, and occasionally buy books from book stores. But now as many as I used to.

[wRiTiNgFiEn]

As much as I love my e-reader, I LOVE being able to have printed books. There's just something special about being able to hold a book in my hands and the way the printed pages smell that I still think of as magical 

~Annabell

[jumbojohnny]

Yes, all the time. I don't consider print v digital to be a battle but simply choices.

[J.R.Tate]

As much as I love my e-reader, I LOVE being able to have printed books. There's just something special about being able to hold a book in my hands and the way the printed pages smell that I still think of as magical 

~Annabell

I love the smell too! I don't feel so weird now. LOL

[Lursa (aka 9MMare)]

Sure, and I still love hard copy books.

But I prefer reading anything not image/picture-heavy on my K3. More ergonomic and lightwt than any book.

The limiting factor for me in fiction is $. I will still buy lower-priced hard copies.

For non-fiction, it depends on a variety of factors. I still buy quite a bit of my non-fiction in hard copy.

Space is my limiting factor for hard copies and is what drove me to explore e-books...and I'm very glad I did!

[Aenea]

I don't have the room to store paper books and I hate to throw them away, so I only read ebooks.

[Lursa (aka 9MMare)]

I don't have the room to store paper books and I hate to throw them away, so I only read ebooks.

I've read this in several threads recently...like the one asking what books you wanted to throw against a wall. So it is not directed only at you.

Do people ever really throw books away?

For me, that is an appalling thought, almost on par with burning them...truly. Books can be donated to many many organizations. Alot of people donate to libraries, I donate to Veterans Hospitals.

[emilyward]

Most of the physical books I read are from the library or books from used bookstores or thrift stores. I'm cheap and feel strange paying $10 for the commercially published books that I'll probably only read once. So the library it is!

[JB Rowley, Author]

I have been reflecting on this recently.

For someone who has always been passionately in love with books I surprised myself by making a complete switch to audio books a few years ago. Having been seduced by this form for its sheer enjoyment as well as convenience, I rejected reading in favour of listening. However, ebooks have brought me back to reading.

I never thought it would come to this but I definitely prefer ebooks to tree books, although my first preference is ear books. JB