New York Times<\/em> reports that Amazon since April 1, 2011, Amazon is selling more e-books than print books (<\/a>hardcover and paperback combined).<\/p>\n\u201cWe had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly,\u201d said Jeff Bezos, Amazon\u2019s chief executive, in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019ve been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, since e-books are generally less expensive than print books, total sales of print books are still greater. But it\u2019s not hard to read the trends.<\/p>\n
Why has this happened? And why so much faster than most experts anticipated?<\/p>\n
I can speak to this, not as a sociologist or a marketing expert, but as a happy Kindle user. I like reading books on my Kindle for many reasons, including:<\/p>\n
\u2022 They are usually cheaper, sometimes less than half the price of a print book.
\n\u2022 They are very readable. The Kindle is about as readable as paper. In particular, unlike the iPad, it has no glare problems. You can read a Kindle in direct sunlight. Or, with a special cover, you can read in total darkness with a light that extends from the cover.
\n\u2022 I can take my Kindle books with me everywhere I go, for reading in waiting rooms, on planes, etc. The Kindle is especially helpful for folks who travel alot
\n\u2022 I can easily save excerpts, copying them on my computer.
\n\u2022 It\u2019s fairly easy to underline key passages. It\u2019s possible to make notes, though not easy.
\n\u2022 You can search a book for words or passages.
\n\u2022 Plus, I can read newspapers easily on a Kindle. They just show up in the middle of the night as if by magic. They can be read without dealing with the \u201coversize paper\u201d problem. There are no ads. I don\u2019t get ink on my fingers. I can read the paper easily while using an exercise bike.
\n\u2022 Plus, the Kindle is now very reasonable. I recover the cost of the Kindle in less than a year.<\/p>\n
The downsides of the Kindle? I can think of a few:<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Kindle will never smell like an old book.
\n\u2022 Kindle books cannot be easily loaned to a friend.
\n\u2022 If you underline on your Kindle, it ruins the Kindle and doesn\u2019t touch the book.
\n\u2022 You can\u2019t flip through a book to look for passages or to see how far you have to go in a chapter.
\n\u2022 Older Kindle books do not have page numbers, which makes them less useful for reviews and academic citations. (Newer Kindle books have page numbers.)<\/p>\n
Plus, though I\u2019ve never done it, I assume that spilling a cup of coffee on a Kindle or dropping it on the floor could be much worse than doing the same with a print book.<\/p>\n
If I want to read a book, I always look for the Kindle version. If there is not a Kindle version, I often wait in the hope that there will be a Kindle version later on.<\/p>\n
As you might imagine, I buy a lot of books in my line of work. I suppose I have been buying something like fifty books a year from Amazon for many years. Now, about 90% of my book purchases are e-books.<\/p>\n
I know this isn\u2019t altogether good news for book publishers. But there is a silver lining. I\u2019m quite sure I buy more books now than I used to because they are so easy to buy and so easy to read.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, it\u2019s happened. It wasn\u2019t unexpected. But it happened sooner than many pundits had predicted. The New York Times reports that Amazon since April 1, 2011, Amazon is selling more e-books than print books (hardcover and paperback combined). \u201cWe had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[788],"tags":[2717,2426,2425],"class_list":["post-799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-amazon","tag-e-books","tag-kindle"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>