Do you still buy physical books?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Yes! I have three (paper) copies of The Forge of God by Greg Bear. I guess it sounded good every time I picked up a copy at a used book store

So tempting to ask how many copies of Anvil of Stars you own....

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by DNSB

So tempting to ask how many copies of Anvil of Stars you own....

I'm afraid to look

I've actually been going through my paper books, looking to at least purge duplicates. Once I started using LibraryThing it helped.

[maddz]

Just been into London for an exhibition... Came home with 3 print books (2 catalogues and another book). Sigh, where am I going to put them given that the specific bookcase is stuffed full?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by maddz

Just been into London for an exhibition... Came home with 3 print books (2 catalogues and another book). Sigh, where am I going to put them given that the specific bookcase is stuffed full?

If you have enough books, you could use them to build a brickcase...

[Wedgedriver]

I have severely downsized the number of physical books that I own. I keep ones that have sentimental value.

[ucfgrad93]

Rarely do I buy physical books.

[jackm8]

Originally Posted by DNSB

If you have enough books, you could use them to build a brickcase...

Impractical yet hilarious.

Last physical book that I've ordered was Waugh Abroad: The Collected Travel Writing. It cost me 50€, half of that on shipping. I've a minor hoarding problem, stemming from my cousins tardiness in returning my books. When I buy a book, it's very rarely leaving the house. I even have a hard time parting with books that I've never finished. Ebooks have been a perfect remedy to this problem. I was reading them when it was not even possible to buy them. I don't put much emphasis on the medium I read on. Sometimes it's great to smell the book, sometime it's great to hold a light device instead of a hefty tome, then again, I do love hefty tomes as well.

[Bellyeye]

Naturally, if I can't find them on digital.

[PurpleStar]

i have been buying too many physical books lately. It’s all the youtube and til tok videos and all their pretty books. All I do is admire them on the shelf but read the ebooks. Must stop buying paper books!

[iNeedScissors61!]

If it's something I really like and want to display, yes. If I bought all the books I've read in physical format I'd need a whole room for them.

[DJUNGELSKOG]

I almost never buy new paper books (unless it’s something that I really want to have), but I frequently visit used bookstores for the thrill of the hunt.

I never buy paper books for the purpose of read them because I can just borrow them from our amazing public library.

[Uncle Robin]

Like some others, I only buy physical books when there are no digital versions. The attached photo is >90% of my entire pbook collection, all with something in common, though there is an odd one out: The only one NOT about an Indo-European language is the most recent purchase, just a few months ago.

[DJUNGELSKOG]

I’m wondering if it’s just me or is the font size in many paper books also a problem for other people.

I don’t have presbyopia yet, but I just can’t read books if the font size is too small. I’m normally using size 28 or 30 in Koreader (it’s not even THAT large) and using a smaller font makes my eyes hurt. I’ve tried to adjust with no luck.

If it was just me then no one would buy books with smaller font sizes (for example mass-market paperbacks) but I can’t be the only one with this problem, right?

[RodRiquez]

I still buy paper books.
In fact I dont buy ANY ebooks, at all, I only use ones I can get for free (by any means) which means I use Gutenberg a lot.

In the past 20 years I been burned so many times by digital content being taken away, that I don't purchase any digital content now unless I can download it & keep the files with no DRM.

Its already happened to me on Kobo where I got a book from the store & its since been removed from the store & auto-deleted from my device. I didnt even get around to reading it.

So I tend to buy a nicely bound book, such as one of the Lovecraft ones, & then source a .epub version. Now I can enjoy reading the physical book on a comfy afternoon at home. & still read it digitally in bed or on the train.

Also there's plenty of non-novel books that I buy physical. Such as Role Playing Game books that dont work well in digital formats on e-readers. So anything published in PDF really, that is not a good experience on e-readers. Any reference book etc, you need physical copies so you can quickly flick through & pass it around.

And then there's esoteric books & old books which demand to be owned physically because of their beauty, history & quality. There's an experience there; holding an old book, feeling the texture of the paper, seeing the imperfections of the ink, using the bound ribbon, admiring the details of the colour plates. Those things cant be conveyed by any device.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DJUNGELSKOG

I’m wondering if it’s just me or is the font size in many paper books also a problem for other people.

I don’t have presbyopia yet, but I just can’t read books if the font size is too small. I’m normally using size 28 or 30 in Koreader (it’s not even THAT large) and using a smaller font makes my eyes hurt. I’ve tried to adjust with no luck.

If it was just me then no one would buy books with smaller font sizes (for example mass-market paperbacks) but I can’t be the only one with this problem, right?

People are different. Some prefer larger font sizes, some smaller; some want larger line spacing, some smaller; some like shorter lines/larger margins, others prefer longer lines/smaller margins. Some want a bit of space between paragraphs, for others it's anathema. And so on. There is no one size fits all, like with most things in life.

Personally I have no real problem with the font size in mass market paperbacks, but having been a MR member for a decade, I know for sure that you're not the only one who prefers larger sizes.