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Comment by bawolff | Hacker News Reader

> Pretty soon (in the scheme of things) they’ll stop printing books and paper money too.

That seems unlikely to me. E-books have really terrible UX. Paper books aren't going anywhere until that is fixed.

I can't carry a library of 1000 physical books in my pocket and pull them out while on the toilet. I think you have it backward.

That's not exactly useful. The ability to read a book without any electrical charge, however, is.

Being able to pull out any book, anywhere, any time, is not useful? What happens at night in your electricityless world, are you reading by candlelight? Or you can just light the page you just read on fire, that way your book is also your fuel.

As someone who reads quickly a lot on planes (and sees a lot of others doing the same) the ability to have multiple books on a Kindle is much more important than lack of access to electricity for a few days.

(I also have a large physical book library.)

e-readers can go for days to weeks on a full charge depending on how often you use them. Definitely much longer than the average smartphone.

But that's not really how books work though. I don't ever really need to read more than 1 book at a time. I'm all for e-readers, have a couple and use them, but it's a cost saving measure. I would vastly prefer physical books for the interface.

Wow, a lot of people taking me very literally. Most people take their phones everywhere, giving them instant access to just about every book ever created. You don’t need a light to read. You just need that thing you already have in your pocket.

That's nice and all, and in a pinch maybe convinent, but most of the time im not looking to read in random places.

I appreciate that might not be true for everyone, use cases vary. For me its essentially being better at a feature i dont use.

Reading books on a phone is even worse than an e-reader though. The difference is usability. It's kind of like saying "Why bother bringing a chair, you have an ass you can sit on anywhere?"

My library is across the hall from my toilet, so I can simply get one of my couple thousand physical books on the way to the toilet.

You only poop at home?

Actually, since my employer switched to work from home about 5 years ago I don't think I've pooped elsewhere.

You only read when you poop?

I have 3 kids.

Have you considered you might just not be the target audience for books?

E-readers being a better interface for people who dont have time to read is not exactly a steller endorsement.

Even in college I didn't need to read more than 5 books at a time. The iPod thousand-songs-in-your-pocket analogy doesn't apply to reading material.

Or until the book publishers condition the market enough to accept expensive DRM-filled ebooks with no physical copies, due to better margins and no secondary market as an alternative. Similar to the video game industry, which used to provide physical copies that you had full control over and now is moving more and more of the user base into digital stores for their “convenience”.

Hackers and pirates will be around one way or another.

What don't you like about the e-book UX? I used to think this but after using them for a few years I now prefer all aspects except two:

* Can't flick between two points in non-fiction books easily

* Can't show them off on a bookshelf

Phones give eyestrain after long use. E-ink is much better but not as good as paper.

In a way i can't really explain, paper books are more relaxing to read.

I actually prefer e-ink to paper because I can adjust the type size and layout.

I have mixed feelings about tablets. I do like that I can have a nightmode colorscheme for night reading. I don't think reading on a phone is a great experience generally.

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