E-books are still an inferior technology to physical books in some ways. I can't, for example, draw a diagram in the margins of an E-book. I can write notes and highlight, but it basically stops there.
With Amazon (not sure about other providers), there's a risk of remote wipe. E-books are often not really yours, and DRM makes that doubly true. The risk of loss with e-books is significantly higher than with physical books.
I'm not sure you can quantify the risk of loss with e-books being significantly higher than with physical books.
There are a lot of house fires, any one of them could destroy your book collection (even the smoke damage alone can make then unusable) - same with floods, vandalism, etc.
How many people have lost their e-book collection due to remote wipe? And if you're going to talk about the person who was wiped by Amazon, it's worth checking the conclusion of that story...
I was thinking more along the lines of accidental data loss than everyone having to worry about remote wipes all the time. I should've made that more clear.
> With Amazon (not sure about other providers), there's a risk of remote wipe. E-books are often not really yours, and DRM makes that doubly true. The risk of loss with e-books is significantly higher than with physical books.
You can mostly fix this with Calibre though (with DRM at the moment at least, it could always change). As I said in another thread, when I connect my Kindle it downloads all my new books and strips the DRM. And my Calibre library gets backed up.
My back will tell you that is WAY better to carry the iPad mini than, say, the Picaxe book. My essential book collection not even fit in my backpack.
Speaking about DRM I prefer noDRM publishers like O'Reilly, Pragmatic despite being a little more expensive. I avoid Amazon e-books.
Also ePub is superior than the azw mobi format.
I agree that the DRM issue definitely needs to be addressed, but I wouldn't say it's a flaw with electronic books so much as a flaw with the marketplace they are in.
Especially in this case, that limitation doesn't apply.
I definitely wish I could draw in my ebooks though, since some things can't be put into words.
- it's nice to stare at something other than a screen
- like the touch, feel and smell (?) of physical books
- books carry some history, they age and change..
(that coffee stain reminds me of my time as a student)
With Amazon (not sure about other providers), there's a risk of remote wipe. E-books are often not really yours, and DRM makes that doubly true. The risk of loss with e-books is significantly higher than with physical books.