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Comment by pragmatic | Hacker News Reader

Books.

Books have a relevance that's hard to match with blog posts, newspapers and magazines.

Books from 200 to 2000 years ago still have a lot of relevance. (Human nature hasn't changed much).

So instead of reading about the latest privacy invasion from Facebook or the latest startup that no one will know about in 2 years, try a book.

I'm trying this myself. Spending less time on hacker news, and more time with good books. So far, much more satisfying. You feel like you accomplished something after finishing a good book. Versus feeling like you wasted a morning/night reading through "timely news".

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And go for the ones with real pages on real paper.

The ones you can lend to your friends after having read them. The ones that your parents have read, kept and that you took in their bookshelf when you were a kid.

The ones that your friends gave back to you and that will wait in your bookshelf for your children to take and read. The ones their friends will borrow and that will probably giggle a bit, because they will have difficulties deciphering the notes your father wrote on a margin.

Because if content has a price, knowledge ought to be free.

To be frank - your comment is just an appeal to nostalgia, not practicality. It comes off in the same way as when some people try to tell you that buying MP3s on the net is wrong and that buying physical CDs are the only right way to do it.

Ebooks have huge advantages compared to physical books. They're availble everywhere (no need for long errands/waiting just to find the book you seek), much cheaper, searchable and don't take up space in your home. They're not lendable (yet), but that's the only issue with them.

I'm not saying that ebooks are "the correct choice". A lot of people still love the feeling of physical books, perhaps rightly so. But please don't tell me that buying ebooks are somehow wrong or any lesser than buying physical books.

Don't forget about the lack of a secondhand market for ebooks. That's a big disadvantage.

To add to that

- Ecological advantages. Am I crazy or does it seem many pro-environment types are pro-dead-tree? Nostalgia is a factor, but I think vinyl vs. mp3 would be a better analogy in that the proponents can point to certain experiential benefits (tactile, smell of an old book etc).

- Ergonomically more practical in most cases. Weight, page flipping, etc. Downside is eye strain in low light, but the current kindle is not too far off from reading a printed page.

They're not lendable (yet)

Pirate them. Then they are lendable.

IMHO books are one place where you can reflect yourself, extend your imagination and look beyond the obvious. You learn a lot about life, and things that make you what you are. But books aren't something where you can understand what goes around you. Also books are not the best preachers, though there are exceptions to this one. Book can be a mirror but not a light. Now comes the case of understanding the present. When things are so damn fast, when you can do what not by just a click of button, i doubt book can even catch up with it. You might have often heard undergrads saying that the books are heavily outdated, as technology is much advanced now a days. This is in fact true. If you want to learn whats happening now in present, and want to be informed, or want to read something interesting, i would suggest that you read blogs, go through the forums, reddit, see some suggested pages that you like on stumbleupon. Its just that what you read totally and completely depends on what you want to read.

I've been using Goodreads to log 'interesting' books that I come across online, and getting from the library&amazon when I need more. They do get more in depth, and force you to focus a bit more - no mail or tweets popping up in the middle of a chapter!

Agreed. I find that reading books on my kindle somehow helps satisfy the desire to be doing something geeky/technical (even if the book is anything but). Able to kill 2 birds with one stone... :)

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