Film, literature and music on your shelf - thing of the past?

[derspiess]

I keep blu-ray movies and console games on my shelf, but mostly out of laziness.  If I had time I'd rip all my blu-rays to my Windows home server and I'd like to get my Xbox games out of the way, but I haven't figured out a way to do so without making it a pain to dig the games out-- and keep my kids from getting into them and scratching up the discs.

[Eddie Teach]

Of course later on he left me for a chick. 

[Jacob]

Some reasons I like physical books over reading the same thing on devices:

- I can read them when there is no power.
- I can read them when there's no net access.
- I can read them during take off and landing while on a plane.
- I don't really need to worry about them getting wet, getting sand in them, getting messy while used in the kitchen, etc.
- It requires much less hardware to conveniently cross reference several volumes simultaneously.
- There are some aesthetic qualities I appreciate about physical volumes.
- Older books have individual history, which I appreciate.
- Some types of illustration and layout works better in physical formats.

That said, there are some significant advantages to e-readers etc, and some of the advantages of physical books can be achieved from a physical format (i.e. printing out a copy of a recipe, rather than brining your reader into the kitchen while cooking). I'm happy to avail myself of new technologies, but so far my preference is still for physical books in most contexts.

[Ed Anger]

I think I need to go fondle my Campaigns of Napoleon again. It has been awhile.

[mongers]

I think I need to go fondle my Campaigns of Napoleon again. It has been awhile.

I'm within 3 1/2 touching distance of mine. 

Damn I miss the old library copy I took out so many time from my local one, those dark blue boards and this thin, but good quality paper brings back a memory or two; whixh no doubt will annoy JR.

[Ed Anger]

That is one book I'm debating getting the digital version of. 1200 pages just ain't that great to lug around to the can.

[KRonn]

I have a Nook (Barnes and Noble). I got the Nook about 1 1/2 years ago and I love it. Very easy to use, compact place for many books. I still get some books in paper form, like reference books because I feel it's easier to thumb through and browse with the book form.

Other than that I still have many of my books, but I occassionally sort through and either donate to the library or into the recycle bin.

I have an ipod too but I still also have many CDs and Cassette Tapes though I rarely listen to the Tapes. The CDs I listen to, as I haven't bought and downloaded all my music to the ipod and likely won't bother. I mostly get music on the ipod that I don't already have, except some favorite albums and songs that I want in both forms.

[mongers]

That is one book I'm debating getting the digital version of. 1200 pages just ain't that great to lug around to the can.

Yes, but the key issue is how well the maps are represented digitally.

Not a good example, but I recently got another miltary history ebook, and after I finished it, I ended up going to the local library to borrow the book so I could see the maps properly, the ebook edition had somehow borked the zoom option.

[CountDeMoney]

I think I need to go fondle my Campaigns of Napoleon again. It has been awhile.

Buy one of grumbler's tomes.

[Admiral Yi]

Buy one of grumbler's tomes.

Did he finally get his diary of the Austerlitz campaign published?

[The Minsky Moment]

Some reasons I like physical books over reading the same thing on devices:

Some of these are pretty good reasons for particular kinds of books, such as:
- There are some aesthetic qualities I appreciate about physical volumes.
- Older books have individual history, which I appreciate.
- Some types of illustration and layout works better in physical formats.

But IMO the vast majority of physical books have no special aesthetic quality or unique indiviudal history.

As for the the rest:

- I can read them when there is no power.
- I can read them when there's no net access.
- I can read them during take off and landing while on a plane.
- I don't really need to worry about them getting wet, getting sand in them, getting messy while used in the kitchen, etc.
- It requires much less hardware to conveniently cross reference several volumes simultaneously

Most dedicated ereaders are very stingy power users so this is unlikely to be an issue unless one sepnds long periods of time in environments without access to electric power.  Net access is not required to read on an ereader - only to get more books.  Takeoffs and landings are an issue but this is a pretty insignificant period of time.  Physical books don't do well with water either. It is true, however, for a number of reasons that cookbooks are better in physical form.  As for cross-referencing, one advantage of ebooks is the ability to search across a wide number of books for a particular word, name or concepts.

The nice thing is that although there are uses for which physical books are superior, there is an easy solution - just get physical books for those uses.   

[mongers]

An important issue for me is once I finished a good book, I might want to lend it to a friend, which at the moment, I can't do sort of lending him the actual ebook reader.
Where as with the physical book, I can drop it off, he may or may not read it in 'good time', maybe his wife ends up reading it as well/instead, perhaps the book ends up not being return, but that's no big loss as it's subsumed in to his collection and I've probably ended up with a few books of his anyway. Owning the physical media does have some concrete benefits that I don't want to give up.

[The Minsky Moment]

An important issue for me is once I finished a good book, I might want to lend it to a friend, which at the moment, I can't do sort of lending him the actual ebook reader.

You can lend but you can only do it once, and it only lasts for 14 days.

[Syt]

An important issue for me is once I finished a good book, I might want to lend it to a friend, which at the moment, I can't do sort of lending him the actual ebook reader.

I think Amazon has kindle to kindle lending.

[mongers]

An important issue for me is once I finished a good book, I might want to lend it to a friend, which at the moment, I can't do sort of lending him the actual ebook reader.

You can lend but you can only do it once, and it only lasts for 14 days.

I don't think that's enabled in the UK yet.
And of course it relies on the other person being in the same walled garden as you.