Greetings one and all !

I'm just wondering how many of you believe there's validity in the claim that printed books are going the way of the dinosaur? For example it's a fact that digital books outsold physical ones in 2010. Personally I'm not too worried about this because there are many pros to books being predominantly digital.

-Can always jump straight to your page

- No need to carry around an extra item with you if you can read them all on your kindle or Iphone

-Many websites offer a one-time membership fee, and then let you download all the latest books for free after you've signed up. An example would be plimus.com/jsp/redirect.jsp?contractId= ... rer=Endnow

What do you guys think?

I'd be very wary about sites like the one in the above post, it doesn't sound right to me, actually, it doesn't look legal. Public domain books, yes, you can get free from many sites, but books, such as the "Harry Potter" novels still carry a copyright. People have been charged huge fines due to downloading free music, I wouldn't take the chance on downloading copyrighted books for free.

When the e-book age came about I was 100% against the idea. I never saw myself buyin an e-reader, reading digitally...until I realized the huge advantages. I now own a Nook (and love it), but while I enjoy reading it, I still have to have the feel of an old, beat-up paperback in my hands from time to time. I think a lot of people feel this way, which is why I don't feel as though printed books will be going the way of the cassette tape any time soon .

It'll be a while until paper books go away, but ebooks will obviously continue to grow, and probably faster than I would have expected a few years ago. Kids today probably won't understand us old folks' affinity toward paper (and I'm only in my thirties).

That web site does look curious, they claim to be legal but I wonder how that could be possible, since they are not merely lending their ebooks.

Eh. I've never really been interested in owning an e-reader, and I doubt that'll change anytime soon. I guess I'd rather just go with a friend and browse through a bookstore instead of downloading a book from the internet.

Still, digital books have attracted a lot of new readers that may not have bothered looking into books, otherwise. I won't argue against anything that gets someone into reading... I'll just say that it isn't for me.

I have a Kindle and have owned it for about 3 years. I tried the e readers when they first came out about 10+ years ago, didn't fully catch on then. If I kept all the books I have read it would totally fill my little house, thus I love the e readers since I can keep the books and still have my space. Also I personally love reading on my Kindle, much less weight and I can move between a couple of books at the same time ( I tend to read a fiction and non fiction at the same time). I am so glad technology has finally caught on. Amazon offers enough of a shopping front (you recommendations) that I don't even miss going into the bookstore anymore. As a voracious reader I also like the idea that many of the classics are free.

In short, I love e readers and I hope through popular reading that I will continue to get the literature that I read.

I'd be wary of dealing with plimus.com, since there are numerous scam alerts posted to the internet describing bad experiences with this company.

My sister got a Kindle for Christmas. She reads a lot of Nora Roberts books. Now she's downloading them all. She seems to like it. I don't see any problem with real books becoming unpopular. There seems to be a lot of efficiency and advantages to digital readers. However, I personally prefer reading an actual book, but I don't generally read on the go.

The nearest bookstore is 70 plus miles away from my home, so I was relegated to shopping online and waiting on the post for delivery. Last year, I decided to buy a Kindle and it has really dramatically increased my reading output. When traveling, I feel like I have a public library and a bookstore at my disposal. I can download a sample of a book in seconds to preview. Purchasing and downloading a book takes about 30 seconds. My wife likes the Kindle because I no longer have stacks of books on my to be read list all over the house.

Do I still buy actual books? If there is something I want to read that is not available yet on Kindle, I will purchase a paperback or hardcover book. Also, when I'm backpacking, I like to take a paperback along to read in camp, since I don't want to get my Kindle dirty.

I really can't see any reason to own a digital reader. The only real advantage might be storage space (currently have probably 7k books hanging out in my house...lots of shelf space involved), but that's not enough to sway me. Books can be carried in your pocket or dropped with no fear of breaking, they involve and require no batteries to use, they can get wet or sand on and in them without fear of losing a <insert cost of digital reader> investment.
Added to this, I simply like the look, feel and sheer tangibility of paper books. There's also the value in their display and cover artwork.
I don't see myself ever getting a digital reader. Audio books are one thing, they provide a service that can't be met elsewhere-being able to read while I drive, but even these I wouldn't buy, only borrow from library.

My eyes aren't made to read a lot in a reader... And you can collect books, but an e-books colection feels strange in my opinion

But, on an e reader, you can get all the classics for free without having to worry about late fees at the library. I've downloaded about 70 free books, from Dostoevski, to Darwin, to Hardy and James, etc. ect... I have also found some authors I have never heard of before. Right now I'm reading, "The Woman in White", Wilkie Collins. However, you are correct Almalau, it's not like you really own them, these books certainly do not warm up my library.

I personally would rather have an actual copy of the book and not read it on a E-reader. That way while reading I can make notes in the book, loan it out if I want friends to read, etc. Yes e-readers are neat and you can keep tons of books on them but I would rather have the book itself and not have to read it off an e-reader.

I have a Kindle, but I still prefer to buy printed books. I found a few rare treasures on Kindle, but I still like shopping bookstores and I carry around a printed book more than my kindle. My fiance likes to read graphic novels, which I guess are really hard to get on Kindle (or so he says). However, since he's fluent in Japanese, he prefers to order them over the internet.

I doubt I'll be getting into ereaders, but I'm a famous old fart when it comes to new gizmos, and sometimes I end up adopting the technology after 10 or 15 years have gone by. One concern I noted that people have is privacy. It seems that sometimes the reader is technically controlled by the service, rather than being a simple and secure download of a book. The reader has an antenna or something in it that enables the service to collect data on the user. I'm not sure how much of a problem this is when you look at it in perspective. It's not the biggest reason that I'd shy away from a reader. Basically, the more things I own that can't break, the better.