Print Is Dead

Posted on Posted in Books I Like, Paperback, Writers of the Future Tagged with , ,

…at least to me.

I’ve long been saying, since I started reading in ebook format, that I was done with print books.  Ebooks are more convenient, less expensive (or at least they should be – peering at Big Publishers with their stupid Agency pricing), more convenient, and hell just plain lighter.  And, especially since I got my Kindle for Christmas (I had done some ebook reading, quite a bit in fact, on my iPhone or iPad before then), I have not touched a print book at all.

Seriously, I’ve got a number of titles that I was in the middle of, or wanted to start, in print, but they’re just sitting there on the shelf while I zoom through ebook after ebook.

Fast forward to now.

Like I mentioned the other day, I just got eight Writers of the Future anthologies in the mail.  I’m eager to read them.  There’s just one problem: they’re in print.

I’ve tried.  I have.  I sat down with Volume 28, the one that just came out, and started reading it.  And man, I gotta tell you, print books suck.  Or at least, print mass market paperbacks suck.  They’re stiff, turning pages is annoying, the text is small.  Plus it’s hard to read the text near the spine without bending the spine all out of whack (and I don’t want to do that because these books look really nice and I don’t want to ruin them).  And then there’s the smell!  I’ve read all kinds of peudo-intellectual diatribes from people about how they’ll never leave print books, and how ebooks are such a tragedy, because of the look, the feel, and the smell of print books.  The smell, that glorious smell, bring a tingle up these people’s spine.  Or something.

Bollox.

That print smell is just…icky.  And the feel?  The damn thing’s too big in my hands, too stiff to open fully, annoying to turn the pages…

So I’ve come full circle it seems.  I’m beginning to think I may have to buy these WotF anthologies in ebook and just set the print up of the shelves.  They do look nice, for certain.  We’ll see.  I’m going to try again on them, but 8 books times 500-600 pages each is a lot of reading.  Not sure how long I’ll be able to stand it.  😛

I suspect my growing dislike for print will be tempered somewhat in the trade paperback and hard cover formats.  But still, there will be the sheer size and weight issue to cope with.  Overall, ebooks provide such an easier, more naturally flowing (if that makes any sense) experience.  Print just doesn’t compete.

IMHO.

Your mileage may vary.

3 Comments on “Print Is Dead”

  1. I always have loved the smell of print books, so I can’t understand why you think it’s icky. Libraries smell like home to me!

    • To each their own. I never noticed it before yesterday. But smelling those print books, I was like, “What the hell is that stink? Geez!”

      I’m strange, I know.

  2. Aw, Michael, I’m feeling exactly the same! I’ve read more books on my Kindle in the past month than print ones… now I’ve picked up one from my TBR pile (one I boat in a certain bookstore in Lincoln City last October during a certain workshop with two famous husband/wife who also happen to be in the book, as it’s a sci-fi collection – Love&Robot or something like that)… meh!! I already want to put it down and go back to my Kindle (where I still have some 20 titles to read)! And fill it with whatever is on my Smashwords list (almost 40 titles)! And forget that pile of paper!!! 🙁 Sigh!