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dazzawazzayesterday at 11:56 AM4 repliesview on HN

Personally I do like these marks. But I buy books to read, not as an investment. I recently bought a book on "How to survive being gassed" published in 1934. It had a typed A4 sheet of paper in it with a poem about how to identify the different types of gas. Humourous and probably useless but real and very alive.

I also take umberidge with the idea that digital books are more convenient. A physical book is more engaging, more beautiful, more real and more present than a digital book. All things that I find convenient when I want to interact with knowledge and art. Horses for courses I assume.


Replies

vundercindyesterday at 12:08 PM

The UI of paper books is better in most ways. Ebooks don’t need separate large print editions, and have full text search. Basically every other point goes to paper books. I don’t bother to defend the aesthetics of books, because their actual utility is high, too.

They’re damn bulky, though, especially when there’s an alternative that weighs nothing. Damn bulky.

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sourcepluckyesterday at 2:15 PM

*umbrage (I like when people tell me, so hoping that isn't taken the wrong way).

Otherwise, very much in agreement!

WillAdamsyesterday at 1:22 PM

Umbrage.

The thing is, I've had a number of instances where the paper copy of a book was so poorly typeset (usually overly long lines on too-wide pages, e.g., _The Inklings and King Arthur: J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis, and Owen Barfield on the Matter of Britain_ edited by Sørina Higgins) that I actually purchased the e-book version so as to be able to read it comfortably.

criddellyesterday at 4:52 PM

I'm guessing you don't (yet) need large type to read comfortably. When that time comes, you may gain an appreciation for the accessibility features of a good ereader.

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