I went through a period of doing this with mine, due to the convenience and the fact I largely read intelligent trash on holiday so it was no loss. Then when it broke in transit I went back to books as getting a new one felt excessive.
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Went back to Kindle recently due to proliferation of long books (500 pages plus) so find it difficult to carry them on commutes a flights and my old wrists are not what they were. I still buy HBs indeed I frequently buy both - ok I’m mad and an academic but ebooks serve a distinct purpose.
aug 17, 2025, 12:27 pm • 1 0 • view
Yeah, looked last year at what a new paperwhite would cost, and was a lot to read books that cost the same in paper (and free in library)
aug 17, 2025, 12:01 pm • 0 0 • view
I also would have sworn they were cheaper in 2011. Maybe some student deal, but I don’t recall thinking “that’s half a games console!” before.
aug 17, 2025, 12:06 pm • 9 0 • view
My kindle 3 (r.i.p.) was excellent and just over £100
aug 17, 2025, 3:36 pm • 0 0 • view
I think amazon was definitely running them as a loss leader back then as they were trying to grow the sector.
aug 17, 2025, 12:26 pm • 1 0 • view
Yeah, they also were very cool.about replacing broken ones (were the time I broke one, about 15 years ago.iirc)
aug 17, 2025, 12:31 pm • 0 0 • view
The other thing is that ebooks aren’t really appreciably cheaper anymore
aug 17, 2025, 12:07 pm • 8 0 • view
Also at least I impulse bought a lot more. Although some impulse purchases like Pounded by the Pound, turn gay by the socio economic effects of Britain leaving the EU, were worth it but 80% I just bought and never read
aug 17, 2025, 12:11 pm • 1 0 • view
IIRC I got a few good deals.. Hitchhikers Guide to Galaxy Trilogy (of 4) for £5 IIRC. Also a series of 5-6 ancient Roman murder mysteries that were fun to read on holidays.
aug 17, 2025, 12:15 pm • 1 0 • view
They are if you're strategic about buying them. Amazon has loads at 99p all the time and Kindle Unlimited. And even without that it's cheaper for new hardbacks most of the time.
aug 17, 2025, 12:09 pm • 30 0 • view
For me it’s about not wanting to lug hardbacks around in my backpack/s hardback landing on my nose in bed, but always being very keen to read new releases.
aug 17, 2025, 12:31 pm • 9 0 • view
Yeah that, plus I literally do not have any more room in my house for physical books (my wife being a literature professor...)
aug 17, 2025, 12:32 pm • 8 0 • view
It’s one of the reasons I moved house a few years ago. I needed more shelf space!
aug 17, 2025, 12:34 pm • 2 0 • view
My experience as a English teacher is - students who are very big readers do both, while infrequent readers are picking something up in the school library or reading physical books in a series bought by parents. Just the logistics of a book a day (very possible for quick readers) leads to ebooks
aug 17, 2025, 12:46 pm • 0 0 • view
I have a paperwhite kindle and it’s so easy to read on it. I subscribe to bookbub daily email of kindle bargains so get plenty of 99p deals. My bookclub is a 99p deal one for the most part. Real books are read and given to others or donated to Oxfam otherwise they would be lurking everywhere.
aug 17, 2025, 12:52 pm • 1 0 • view
...also ebooks from the regular library are part of their diet. Obviously the more price sensitive they are, the more important school and library provision is
aug 17, 2025, 12:47 pm • 0 0 • view
My weakness is photobooks, which really don't work in non-physical form. Tried a Magnum ipad edition once and it was a nope. We have a one-in-one-out policy now, which definitely makes me more selective.
aug 17, 2025, 3:16 pm • 1 0 • view
I am sure I have seen a partially blank wall next to you when you are talking on camera...
aug 17, 2025, 1:07 pm • 1 0 • view
Literally every available wall space covered plus piles everywhere...
aug 17, 2025, 1:16 pm • 13 0 • view
I’m v fond of having the odd purge, but harder when there’s a “crap/might need to cite” bit of the quadrant to service.
aug 17, 2025, 1:22 pm • 13 0 • view
The carpenter was rather baffled when he wanted to talk installing shelves measured in metres and I was measuring in years.
aug 17, 2025, 2:49 pm • 3 0 • view
it is good to kill an admiral from time to time, in order to encourage the others
aug 17, 2025, 6:57 pm • 0 0 • view
Every so often I will donate/chuck some books or comics because the space is getting too cramped - and then that space fills. And that's when I also have the ebooks because I'm one of those rank sickos that does both
aug 17, 2025, 3:06 pm • 1 0 • view
Hardbacks are a pain in general; too big, heavy and expensive.
aug 17, 2025, 12:41 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes but don’t use Amazon … they don’t pay their people or their taxes
aug 17, 2025, 12:14 pm • 3 0 • view
We live in an imperfect world. As long as authors I want to read have their books on Amazon I don’t see much alternative to Kindle books (though I do advocate using local libraries when possible, as they are wonderful).
aug 17, 2025, 12:20 pm • 0 1 • view
Exactly, we have all have the ability to micro-vote on the type of society we want to live in everytime we buy something. Easy to use alternatives to Amazon for most things
aug 17, 2025, 12:26 pm • 0 0 • view
Ok but that's why you're paying more not because of ebooks per se.
aug 17, 2025, 12:19 pm • 1 1 • view
I prefer to pay more rather than support Amazon. I do a lot of shopping online but I never use Amazon.
aug 24, 2025, 6:54 am • 0 0 • view
Yea not only is this my main way of buying kindle books but sometimes if I've got the hardback of something (Failed State for example) I'll still get the kindle version for 99p because it's easier to carry around
aug 17, 2025, 2:27 pm • 4 0 • view
Probably 50% of my reading is on the Kindle iPad app (mostly cause it's nice for reading in bed as you can have black background/beige text, and no need to have a lamp on to read a normal book) but a standalone Kindle doesn't seem worth it IMO and just something else to remember to keep charged 😂
aug 17, 2025, 2:43 pm • 4 0 • view
Yeah, I could not handle charging another device. As this point I would pay for someone to turn our flat into a wireless charging coil
aug 17, 2025, 2:48 pm • 4 0 • view
See this is the main reason I haven't bought an iPad since my last one died, I like having dedicated things for dedicated purposes but it does mean you end up with a lot of things!
aug 17, 2025, 3:00 pm • 1 0 • view
E-ink display devices tend to last for considerable periods of time because the battery is only used for the back light and to change the page. They are much nicer to read on than mobile/tablet screens.
aug 17, 2025, 4:17 pm • 0 0 • view
Yeah, one of my most common uses for my Kindle is when I want to read a new release without risking the integrity of my spine.
aug 17, 2025, 12:11 pm • 4 0 • view
They are cheaper for Comics and Warhammer books
aug 17, 2025, 12:12 pm • 0 0 • view
Yeah I mostly read ebooks these days because a) I am hyperlexic, we already have so many physical books and my partner does not wish us to perish in a book avalanche b) joint issues mean it's a lot less painful. (Should get an ereader again rather than the app as i better for eyestrain stuff)
aug 17, 2025, 12:16 pm • 2 0 • view
I have gone almost entirely to Kindle because our house is full (and our local libraries are not good). It's also easier to carry around and to read with one hand, when standing on the tram, eating etc.
aug 17, 2025, 3:32 pm • 1 0 • view
Yeah, hardbacks are simply unpleasant to read for me.
aug 17, 2025, 1:08 pm • 0 0 • view
I spent a couple of months chugging through Amanda Foreman’s A World on Fire on the tube. I can only imagine the size of brick it would be in paperback. And as a giant, sprawling analysis of the American civil war, to be able to long press anyone’s name to remember who they were was a god send.
aug 17, 2025, 2:53 pm • 0 0 • view
My take on why younger people (I do know some) prefer physical over digital is a) it’s a status symbol and b) it’s a conversation starter. “Oh, is that the new X book by Y?” vs. “Oh, is that a Kindle? And tell me, on that Kindle, do you have a preferred genre? And within that genre…”
aug 17, 2025, 12:14 pm • 1 0 • view
Apparently has been a gently mocking trend on TikTok about boys 'perfomatively reading' books to impress girls.
aug 17, 2025, 12:17 pm • 2 0 • view
That is not something that has started with social media...
aug 17, 2025, 12:21 pm • 3 0 • view
Yes - I realised recently that for 20 years I have been saying “Persuasion” was my favourite Austen novel, to impress a girl that I hadn’t just read the ones that were made into 90s adaptations of one kind or another, and I don’t actually know what the real answer is.
aug 17, 2025, 12:45 pm • 5 0 • view
Persuasion was made into a BBC film in about 1995/1996? With Ciaran Hinds. Sam West was n it too. Love him. It was reshown on BBC last month ish. Still on iPlayer. The film is *fabulous*. It's my favourite Austen book too.
aug 17, 2025, 12:49 pm • 1 0 • view
I did actually read the Book of Laughter & Forgetting when I was a teenage boy for no reason other than to impress a girl
aug 17, 2025, 2:30 pm • 0 0 • view
No but has been a big trend there sometime in last cpl of months...
aug 17, 2025, 12:30 pm • 0 0 • view
And pirate ebooks are much easier to access/download
aug 17, 2025, 12:19 pm • 0 0 • view
Although see @lsepress.bsky.social (for example) which have free open access ebooks - including the rather good Conflict, War and Revolution- part of a growing trend in academic publishing. This enables a wide readership for otherwise esoteric books that are too expensive for ordinary students …
aug 17, 2025, 12:20 pm • 3 0 • view
Love niche physical academic books though. "This book is 500€ but it's only ever printed in 2000 copies worldwide. Everyone who owns it is member of a club"
aug 17, 2025, 12:24 pm • 1 0 • view
Were they ever? Remember being astonished at the lack of discount vs actual books.
aug 17, 2025, 12:11 pm • 0 0 • view
I have an old Kindle but mostly use the Kindle app on an iPad for reading almost everywhere except outside. Have mostly got rid of my physical books (small apartment + knowledge that I have read them all and won’t reread most of them). Use libraries, Kindle & occasional physical book purchases now.
aug 17, 2025, 12:18 pm • 0 0 • view
For old books I buy paper (usually secondhand, partly for environmental reasons, usually on Abe Books), but new books I mostly buy on Kindle (and often read on my phone, on the commute! It’s fine for something that can be read in short bursts).
aug 17, 2025, 11:56 am • 3 0 • view