Ebooks Vs. Traditional Print Books

Among readers and authors the debate is whether or not Ebooks and are going to push traditional printed books right off the market. There are good points for both sides of this argument. I don't know if print books are headed the way of the record player or 8 track tapes but there could be some growing pains as we get used to this new digital world we now live in.

Ebooks
Ebooks are easy to carry in the E-Reader of your choice. With the different choices of E-Readers on the market now holding close to 1000 ebooks, the choice is really up to you. Downloading an ebook takes mere minutes and having so many books stored in something so tiny will help cut down on the amount of space you have to have in order to store you books.

While some ebooks cost less than traditional print books, after buying an ebook you do not own that copy of the book like you do when buying a copy of a print book. You cannot sell, transfer, lend, or send through the email your copy of an ebook. With an ebook, you are essentially buying the right to read that copy and nothing more.

While some places online will allow you to download samples of the ebook you are about to buy, with print books you can easily leaf through the book and read a few pages of your choice. In order to read your ebook you have to have either an E-Reader or computer. Some people can't afford E-Readers while other don't want to have to be plugged in just to read a book.

Traditional Print Books
Unlike ebooks which are stored on a small device, print books take up space either on shelves, book cases, boxes ect.

Traditionalists prefer to have the printed book in their hands to read. I am one of those traditionalists that prefer print books over ebooks.

With traditional print books, after reading you can sell, lend, give away, trade, or let someone borrow that copy of the print book. Books require no batteries, no charging, or other device to read them on.

Are Print Books Soon To Be A Thing of the Past?
My opinion is print books are here to stay but I do believe that book stores and print book sales are going to take a big hit because of ebooks in the near future.

According to Mashable.com Amazon says, "over the past three months, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold. It sold 143 Kindle books. Over the past month, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 180 Kindle books. "

Digital technology is beginning to change how we get our books as well as how we do many other things and how we keep in touch with one another.

I frequently buy used books from bookshops and from places like Amazon.com and I don't think the price of an ebook will ever beat the price of a used book in good condition. There will never be a second hand book shop for the digital books and until the cost of purchasing a digital copy that I cannot sell, lend out or trade comes down to a reasonable level, I will stick with the real thing.


Sources:

http://mashable.com/2010/07/19/amazon-kindle-sales/