Survey finds that 62% of 16 to 24-year-olds prefer paper books to e-books

[Xanthe]

Originally Posted by Waflicka

This doesn't surprise me at all. I'm well within the demographic at 21 years old, and an English major -- so naturally myself and all of my friends are prolific readers. I prefer readers and one friend prefers audiobooks, but all of my other friends within this age bracket prefer books. Most have boxes of them in their garages for lack of storage space! Frankly, I think that the insinuation by earlier posters that people who prefer paper must not be prolific readers is quite offensive. Just because you prefer a screen, it doesn't mean that everybody else should -- some prolific readers are tactile readers, too. Get over it. The level of arrogance in this thread is a disgusting picture of this forum...

This, coupled with the obvious lack of reading comprehension when people answer basic questions in threads, makes me very, very doubtful of my decision to join. You're folks who can't see the forest for the trees, and half of you seem to think the trees are shrubs, anyway. *shakes head*

Sorry if this seems arrogant, but welcome to the real world.

This forum is made up of a wide assortment of people ranging in ages from just legal to very old, of a variety of economic classes and political beliefs, different genders, different religions, different cultures, different sexual orientations, different educational levels, different levels of comprehension of the English language, and we come from all around the world. The only common threads we all have are that we are human and that we enjoy reading. We all bring our attitudes and preconceptions to any forums we participate in. You may not agree with me, I might not agree with you. You might take offense at what I post, and vice versa. That's what happens on a forum such as this.

You are making sweeping generalizations based upon limited interactions with small subsets of the membership here. I hope you take a step back, take a breath, and realize that you're not always going to agree with what people post here. That we're not somehow less whatever-annoys-you just because we share the love of reading. We all get annoyed at one time or another by comments posted by others because we think that they are arrogant, or stupid, or condescending, or too sarcastic or whatever. But that's just the way people come off at times, sometimes without even realizing it. Sometimes it is deliberate and then you have to decide if it is worth calling them on it, or if it is better to just ignore their comments (and them) if they annoy you.

[speakingtohe]

I've rarely been attached to a physical book. The only thing I have been attached to is the content I think. I have on rare occasions spent over $100 on a book, and perhaps I gazed fondly at the physical packaging of the content (words) for a minute or two, but no longer than I might gaze at the box a Computer or set of cookware etc. came in.

I know this isn't the norm, and that some people buy a book with no intention of even reading it.

At the moment, I would rather have an ereader with some books and the ability to buy or borrow from the library than a thousand or even ten thousand physical books even if I had the space to put them. That could change but I doubt it.

Helen

[BelleZora]

Many older people begin to detach from things. We can't take them with us when we downsize from a family home to something smaller. We get tired of dusting them and moving them. We realize the impermanence of everything. Pretty much all my older friends prefer ebooks to paper books for this reason, along with the fact that they are more comfortable to read.

It is not arrogant to prefer either book format. We are just in different places in life.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by BelleZora

Many older people begin to detach from things.

On the other hand, there are also many older people who cling to things.

My 80 year old neighbor throws NOTHING away. Not even the 25 year old CRT TV that broke down 4 years ago. It's still in the shed.

"It's a pity to throw that away.Maybe someone can get it repaired some day."

Eh... no.

Originally Posted by Katsunami

eBooks should be half their price: For me, eBooks ARE already half the price of the paperback versions, or close to that, assuming I shop around a bit, and sometimes prices are even lower.

Even if ebooks were 10% the price of pbooks, they would often be more expensive than pbooks. I realize that a lot of people buy their books new, either because they want the latest titles or because it is easier to find a particular title. Yet there are also a lot of people who buy books used or who get books for free. Even at a used book store, which is often the most expensive option for used books, you'll typically pay half of the cover price. Thrift store prices vary, but they seem to range from 5% to 25% of the cover price. There are also plenty of ways to get free books, ranging from having a book passed along by a friend to strangers leaving boxes of free books by the curbside. There are a lot of reasons why people are willing to pay less than MSRP, but I'm just going to point out one because a lot of people seem to prefer ebooks due to space considerations: there is a difference between readers and collectors. There is a definite overlap because many avid readers will maintain their own library, but there are also avid readers who have no interest in maintaining their own library. Once they are done with a book, they'll get rid of it (or hold on to it until they can get rid of it). Now there is a fairly good chance that those people will value a book, in terms of dollars and cents, less than a person who will hold onto a book for years. It is also quite probable that those people are willing to pay more for a book that they are going to keep. For physical books, this isn't an issue. You just exercise your patience and deal hunting skills, and you'll find the book at the price you want (even if that is free). For electronic books, that is an issue. Most of the options for cheap books simply do not exist because the only people who can sell ebooks have a contractual relationship with the publisher. Even if that relationship doesn't set the retail price for the book, it will determine how much the vendor is paying for the book. Since vendors are in the business of making money, unlike your friends or the guy who put a box of free books on the curb, they are unlikely to sell a book below cost. (Yes, I know that they sometimes do. But they do that with the expectation that you'll spend money on products that will turn a profit.) So yeah, I find ebooks expensive. Simply put, I almost never pay MSRP.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Simply put, I almost never pay MSRP.

I don't know where you live, but paying MSRP is not American:

In a 2012 presentation, Mr. Johnson, then still Penney's CEO, said the company was selling fewer than one out of every 500 items at full price.

I'm a library borrower, not a book buyer. But on the rare occasion I do buy a book, I have gotten used to getting a JC-Penney style mega discount. Maybe Amazon should try charging the eBook at the hardback list price for first couple of weeks after release, and afterwards mark it down by 60 percent or so. Then, vary prices a little every week, just like an airline, so eBook bargain hunters can feel they got an unusually good deal, just as do paper book buyers.

Maybe I should have taken out a business process patent on this before posting

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

I agree with your summation.

Being able to finally afford and buy books was a big deal to me when I was younger, since I had always been an avid reader since I learned to read. I can understand preferring the tactile aspect of reading, the enjoyment of book cover designs (they just don't have the same impact on e-readers), the ability to easily share books (and re-sell them).

Exactly!

And I didn't point out any of those things as negative - just that these are the reasons I've seen younger people have for preferring paper.

Just as I never meant to imply that all avid readers must prefer ebooks - far from it; it's just that it's far more likely that when you're an avid reader, then by some point in your life you'll get to a point where space becomes a real consideration. Of course there are avid readers with no space issues - good for them; it's just that not everyone has a large house or lots of storage space, and for those avid readers, space does become an issue at some point.

Obviously when you have no issues with storage space, either because you have a lot of space, because you don't buy all your books (but get most from the library or borrow from friends) or give most of your read books away or sell them, and when you don't have physical problems with holding or reading paper books and find them perfectly comfortable, when you can easily find enough books to read without having to consider that you need to import every single book (and new, because used books aren't any cheaper), and when there don't seem to be any significant cost savings, there's no reason whatsoever for the majority of people to switch to ebooks.

And the younger the reader, the more likely it is that none of that is a significant issue - while there is a lot of value in owning beautiful books (that they have space for and that they have no problems reading) or being able to easily borrow books from friends. That doesn't mean older people, and older avid readers, cannot or shouldn't prefer paper; I just mean that among the 16-24-year-olds, it's completely logical that those readers are in a majority.

I get the preference for paper books - other than the much-lauded "smell" of books (if I can smell a book, there's something wrong with it and I don't want it, and being allergic to both dust and the ink used in many cheaper books, I don't go around inhaling books), owning a beautiful object that also offers you an entertaining or enjoyable read is a very satisfying experience. Now that I've switched to ebooks for reading, and don't have to waste my very valuable remaining shelf space on read-once books with ugly covers, I've turned to buying the odd well-designed hardback and hunting down fine condition ARCs of my favourite books, as a collector.

I don't read them because I find reading on the Kindle much more comfortable, convenient and enjoyable, but I absolutely get the satisfaction of owning books as physical objects - and I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

If you're an avid reader who has loads of space and no issues with holding and reading paper books, then .. well, great for you! Just that the older avid readers (many of whom don't live in huge houses - this may also be location-dependent; in many countries, and especially in cities, most people live in small flats) get, the more likely it becomes that many of them will switch to ebooks because of practical reasons (space, eyesight, difficulties in holding narrow-margined paperbacks open).

[xg4bx]

I have a VERY old fashioned view of books, I look at having them as a certain type of status or class item similar to that back when literature (and literacy) weren't as widespread. I'm always impressed by a sizeable personal library. I have no idea why however lol.

[Yapyap]

I admit, even with my preference for ebooks, my first reaction upon seeing a home with no paper books is also, hm, not entirely positive. (Yes, I know it's a snobbish reaction; I'm actively trying to get over it and I would never sneer at the people for that, but it's the automatic reaction I get.)

I'd love to have a house with space for a proper library. As it is, I have a two-bedroom flat that has 14 bookshelves in it (most of them ~2 m high and double-stacked) and that's pretty much the absolute limit, considering I do need other furniture and some breathing space, too.

.. of course, even if I had space for a library, I'd be buying paper books and never reading them, since I really and genuinely just don't like reading paper books any more. :-/ Didn't like the physical reading process already for a few years before ebooks became an attainable reality, especially with mass market paperbacks, but I did like reading the stories in them (and looking at the books on my shelves), so dealing with the physical book was a necessary evil.

Originally Posted by Yapyap

I admit, even with my preference for ebooks, my first reaction upon seeing a home with no paper books is also, hm, not entirely positive. (Yes, I know it's a snobbish reaction; I'm actively trying to get over it and I would never sneer at the people for that, but it's the automatic reaction I get.)

In this case, a little snobbishness is probably a good thing.

I don't expect people to be heavy readers, but I do believe that reading is part of a balanced life. That means that I find walking into a house without any books off-putting.

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

In this case, a little snobbishness is probably a good thing.

I don't expect people to be heavy readers, but I do believe that reading is part of a balanced life. That means that I find walking into a house without any books off-putting.

I expect that in time, with ebooks and ereaders becoming more prevalent, that reaction might change - it'll be entirely reasonable to expect that people have moved over to ebooks.

As it is, ebooks are very much in their infancy here (I think it's basically only in the last year or so that many - certainly not all - newly published books also come in epub editions, and there is active digitalisation of public domain classics by the best known 19th / early 20th century authors going on, but we're talking in the low hundreds, not thousands or tens of thousands of books) and I expect most ebook converts for now are the same kind of people like me, i.e. people who were already reading largely in English and had to import all their reading material, so a home without books = very likely a home without readers...

[Gazella]

I'm a 21-year-old. I used to prefer pbooks to ebooks but that was before I actually had an ereader. I decided to get an ereader a year ago and I really liked the experience and so I've never gotten a single pbook ever since, it's all ebooks now. I wonder how many of the participants actually tried ebooks, maybe if they did, the results would be different.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

I expect that in time, with ebooks and ereaders becoming more prevalent, that reaction might change - it'll be entirely reasonable to expect that people have moved over to ebooks.

It could even completely turn around in the opposite direction.

"Huh... paper Books?"
"DVD and Blu-Ray Disks?"

What kind of a backward sod it this?

As it is, ebooks are very much in their infancy here (I think it's basically only in the last year or so that many - certainly not all - newly published books also come in epub editions, and there is active digitalisation of public domain classics by the best known 19th / early 20th century authors going on, but we're talking in the low hundreds, not thousands or tens of thousands of books)

If one's not reading in English, then e-readers become much less useful.

I for one wouldn't want to be reading Dutch books only; I'd pay through the nose, because I can only get them in Dutch stores, and e-books are just as expensive as paperbacks. Also, the selection is horrible. Most books published in Dutch are actually translated English ones.

and I expect most ebook converts for now are the same kind of people like me, i.e. people who were already reading largely in English and had to import all their reading material, so a home without books = very likely a home without readers...

You won't see any books in my house, anywhere, except when I'd be inclined to show you the room where the computer / office / library / study is.

In 2011, I've started to re-read all paper books I have, and each time I replace one with an e-book, it gets noted as replaced. After a series is completely reread and replaced, I'm selling or giving away the paper books. In a year or three from now, you won't find any paper books in my house anymore, except for books that can't be replaced with e-books.

Then I'll probably start to create my "epic book case", buying hardcover editions of my favorites. Not really to read them; more as collector's items.

Somewhere down the road, I'll also give away or sell all of my DVD's, not even bothering to replace them; I'll only keep the movies I think best.

My CD-collection was the first one to be digitized, and it's now (almost) completely converted into FLAC with high resolution album covers. I haven't touched my CD's for ages. (I even don't have a CD-player anymore, although my DVD-player can be used as such.) Probably, at some point in time, all CD's will be given away or sold as well.

[arcadata]

Guess it depends on what they read? My teenage niece (and her friends) love Japanese manga, and she reads on her Samsung phablet.

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

If one's not reading in English, then e-readers become much less useful.

I for one wouldn't want to be reading Dutch books only; I'd pay through the nose, because I can only get them in Dutch stores, and e-books are just as expensive as paperbacks. Also, the selection is horrible. Most books published in Dutch are actually translated English ones.

Same situation here. Ebooks are cheaper than paper books though - something like paper book costing around 20 € and the epub version of the same being around 16 €. Still terribly expensive compared to English books.

My mother has pretty much made the switch to ebooks now because the print in paper book is just uncomfortably small for her these days (and she doesn't like to use reading glasses when reading on her side in bed) - she's happy to read on my old iPad, which doesn't bother her nearly as much as it did me, for reading, and she needs the larger screen. I must admit I'm glad she's not nearly as voracious a reader as I am; she reads only before sleep and gets through maybe 2-3 books a month - if she read 10-15 books a month, I don't think I could afford to buy her books!