For the last two years, I've been taking part in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge over at Long and Short Reviews. (The first link will take you to the list of topics; the second one goes to the homepage, where you can find a post with everyone's responses each week. Feel free to join in!)
This week's prompt is "paperback, ebook, or audio?"
The technical answer is that I've done all three, though I only listen to audio books under fairly specific circumstances.
Ebooks are my most common format for book-buying. That's partly price -- they tend to be a little bit cheaper -- but mostly it's because of space considerations. Tragically, I never achieved my dream of becoming filthy rich through a career of professional decadence, so I do not own a massive house built entirely in the image of the library from Beauty and the Beast (but with more secret passages). Having a reasonably-sized electronic book full of endless other books is an everyday miracle, a casual treasure that I get to just... carry around with me.
That said, some books -- especially some I remember from my childhood -- simply aren't available as eBooks. So I'll purchase them however I can: paperback, trades, hardbacks. And I find it difficult to read graphic novels as ebooks, so I tend to get those in paperback as well. (After that, well, I go back to wondering why my shelves are always so cluttered.)
Then there are books that are... how to say this... important to me. Books I re-read, stories I adore. I will generally buy those as ebooks, yes, but I will also buy them in hardback if possible, or paperback if not. These are the books that want to make sure I can still have around if the world ends, the electrical grid collapses, and the Internet is no more.
I know Mad Max is always out there looking for gasoline, and there are whole book genres devoted to riding out the Apocalypse in some sort of shelter or compound before emerging to rebuild True Democracy, but me? No. I intend to roam the wasteland as an itinerant Dungeon Master, running roleplaying games in exchange for food and supplies; or perhaps helping to organize a cenobitic order of traveling librarians.
So how do you buy your books?
I mostly buy ebooks due to a lack of space for physical books. I've never bought an audiobook, but I've borrowed a couple from the library. I found that they didn't work well for me.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I recently discovered a site for buying ebooks and audiobooks through local bookstores (come to think of it, it might've been through your Twitter feed). It seems like a good way to support local bookstores instead of feeding the beast that is Amazon. I haven't determined if there's any way to give books as gifts this way though. I present the URL here: https://mymustreads.com/
It's been nothing but audio for me lately, just cause it is easier to navigate them when driving, working, etc. I can listen almost anywhere I am to them.
ReplyDeleteEbooks do have the advantage on price, but I do like being able to line books up on a shelf. And as you say, they're good to have in a power cut.
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