With regard to physical books vs e-books, I love hardcovers so when I am looking for something to read my first instinct is to go to eBay and find a used hardcover copy. If it is an older published book then I will definitely lean towards getting the oldest good condition copy possible - I've snagged a few first editions that way. However buying and shipping from random people and bookstores on eBay is slow so this means that when I finish a book I might still be waiting for the next one. So I have reluctantly purchased an e-book reader so I can download something quickly to read in the lurch - but it's definitely doesn't have the same feeling of ownership as a physical book which I can just pull down from the shelf to refer to on a whim. If I really love the book, I will buy a physical copy in the end.
Yes, like I say in the piece, I use an e-reader. But any favourites I want to have, and hold, and put on my shelf. (It will be ironic if my collection is promptly destroyed in a fire.)
Very skeptical of Chapman's argument, which seems to amount to his being unable to easily picture benefits for a product justifying an ongoing restriction of liberty that is hard to police.
With regard to physical books vs e-books, I love hardcovers so when I am looking for something to read my first instinct is to go to eBay and find a used hardcover copy. If it is an older published book then I will definitely lean towards getting the oldest good condition copy possible - I've snagged a few first editions that way. However buying and shipping from random people and bookstores on eBay is slow so this means that when I finish a book I might still be waiting for the next one. So I have reluctantly purchased an e-book reader so I can download something quickly to read in the lurch - but it's definitely doesn't have the same feeling of ownership as a physical book which I can just pull down from the shelf to refer to on a whim. If I really love the book, I will buy a physical copy in the end.
Yes, like I say in the piece, I use an e-reader. But any favourites I want to have, and hold, and put on my shelf. (It will be ironic if my collection is promptly destroyed in a fire.)
Very skeptical of Chapman's argument, which seems to amount to his being unable to easily picture benefits for a product justifying an ongoing restriction of liberty that is hard to police.