Bookstores vs EBooks, physical books vs ebooks.
I'd been putting off buying the last Milkweed novel as a Kindle book from Amazon. The first two I bought from, firstly an independent bookstore (Penny's, Chartwell Mall, Hamilton NZ), and secondly from a chain bookstore. In both cases they cost 2-3 times more than the Kindle book.
But ... something about the physical nature and emotional weighting to me of books keeps pulling me back to them.
The rational part of me can understand the advantages of ebooks - no physical space used (so less need for large bookcases full of books I've read once and haven't got to parting with), easy to obtain, cheaper. But the part of me that grew up with a love of reading and the places I could go to in my imagination, I think still wants the physical book experience.
The thrill of the long pursuit in finding out of print novels in used bookshops is also something that in parts defines the last twenty years of my life - it's seldom there isn't some novel or author that I'm on the look for. Rypel, Watt-Evans, Foster, Williams, Tepper, Sartre...
And so it is, that I finally bought Necessary Evil as a physical book in a chain bookstore, maybe getting some airpoints in the purchase.
But ... something about the physical nature and emotional weighting to me of books keeps pulling me back to them.
The rational part of me can understand the advantages of ebooks - no physical space used (so less need for large bookcases full of books I've read once and haven't got to parting with), easy to obtain, cheaper. But the part of me that grew up with a love of reading and the places I could go to in my imagination, I think still wants the physical book experience.
The thrill of the long pursuit in finding out of print novels in used bookshops is also something that in parts defines the last twenty years of my life - it's seldom there isn't some novel or author that I'm on the look for. Rypel, Watt-Evans, Foster, Williams, Tepper, Sartre...
And so it is, that I finally bought Necessary Evil as a physical book in a chain bookstore, maybe getting some airpoints in the purchase.