Hacker News Reader

Comment by anigbrowl | Hacker News Reader

The model is just too compelling for consumers: Pay a reasonable price, get access to all the content you want without having to own it

I quite like owning my books, actually. There's already an alternative to doing so, called a library; since the book sales business did quite well int he pre-internet days despite the widespread availability of libraries, I'm not sure why the author thinks a functioning e-book library is suddenly going to bring sales to a screeching halt.

View on HN

In fact, some public libraries lend e-books too. And there's OpenLibrary.org, which also lends e-books for free.

My local library has been lending ebooks for years. Just a few days ago, they started "lending" online movies as well: http://www.helmet.fi/en-US/Tips/News_flash/HelMet_libraries_...

I better go cancel my Netflix subscription.

Some even lend e-book readers so people can access their lent e-books.

I like owning books, too, until I had to move continents and sell my entire library.

I think folks are missing one aspect of the Netflix-style experience; discovery. Sure, the joy of flipping through the sci-fi/fantasy section in the local bookstore or library is an unparallelled experience -- but I've found book discovery via Amazon to provide me with far more than simply gazing at shelves.

It's not only the product consumption experience that is changing, but how we interact with books in general. And while I'm a big fan of libraries, we're all getting used to metadata, social annotations, reviews and suggestions -- add that to the ease of access an 'all you can eat' approach provides, and I for one am looking forward to where it leads. (mind you, I read anything from 10 to 20 books a month, so I'd definitely benefit from this kind of service!)

You read 10-20 books a month? interesting, either you have a lot of time or your a really fast reader I can do maybe 7. What's your secret? teach me Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Oh sme people are jsut really really fast at reading :/ a book i'd finish in a week, my gf finishes it in a 24-hr day!

I read at night and on the train, plus often binge-read at weekends. Note that I mostly count fiction; I don't get through technical books so fast, but some other non-fiction is readable. Been a book addict since I was very small, and tablets have greatly helped. :-)

Books in the library are rivalrous: for a given physical book, at most one person can borrow it at a given time. There are nontrivial costs (time and/or money) to copying a physical book.

e-books, in the current incarnation, are not rivalrous and are much easier to copy and disseminate.

eBook lending licenses as brokered by the companies that provide this service to libraries (e.g. Overdrive) usually restrict the number of "copies" of an eBook that can be loaned at one time, and patrons often have to put themselves on waiting lists for books the same as they would have to for a checked out physical book. Obtaining additional available "copies" for popular eBooks is functionally the same as the library buying extra copies of a physical book.

To be fair, isn't comparing this to a library similar to comparing Netflix to Blockbuster?

Except that libraries tend to be free.

In some libraries you pay an annual membership fee, not dissimilar to the flat monthly fee paid to Netflix (and now Oyster), as opposed to the per-rental fee Blockbuster used to charge.

Where? Is it for some sort of "premium" access? Otherwise, that's what tax dollars go towards.

There are such things as private libraries (here's one in SF: http://www.milibrary.org/), and public libraries in other countries have different policies.

Municipal libraries often allow non-resident access for an annual membership fee.

University libraries are funded by tuition, and may allow non-university access for a fee.

Free unless you pay property and/or local sales taxes.

I agree, owning books after I'm done reading them gives me a sense of accomplishment it's like a treasure.

I feel the same way. I love owning my stuff. My MP3 files, my ebooks, my hardcopies, vinyls, cd's, etc. All this "in the cloud" stuff just adds an extra overhead to my already stressful life. "Will this company perish and all my shit be gone? Is it secure?" are questions I always think about.

When I have that physical copy, the (mostly) only person I have to blame is myself for not maintaining my items integrity.

Different strokes. Owning that stuff would add way more overhead and stress for me. Different folks.

.. or the same folks, at a different life stages.

I used to love to own stuff. Had great pride of my mp3 collection with pristine ID3 tags, my Star Trek TNG collection, or the piles of magazines and books...

After my last couple of moves between cities, I got tired of having to carry stuff around. Or to keep things organized, sync'ed, backed up across multiple devices. What a waste of time and money.

Can't say I won this battle yet, but at least I started to be more rational. Started donating half my books, and only purchasing ebooks (except for programming languages; still prefer the dead tree version). Also gave away DVDs, almost all CDs (still need to rip a few rare ones before giving away). Threw away most magazines, except for MakeMag and Circuit Cellar.

A couple of more moves and I'll be really free :)

ps: speaking of donating stuff, a friend created an awesome startup for exactly that reason: http://www.bondsy.com. Rather useful for things that you still care, but it's time to find a new home for it.

I've moved like 5 times in the last 10 years.

I only buy ebooks now. I use Spotify. I've sold my CD's to a used record store. I've stopped collecting mp3's.

Not having a bunch of physical cruft (and not having to manage it) is better.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com