"Wed's Wonderings & Wanderings": Books vs. eBooks, Price over Preference

Recently I've found myself purchasing a lot of books, not ebooks, which I normally do, but actual physical books. *Gasp! Shouldn't be a huge shock but ever since I purchased my first eReader in college, I begun purchasing a lot of ebooks to minimize the number of physical books I'd have to carry to class and back. Ever since then I completely went eBook crazy and quickly stopped buying "real" books. At first my excuse for buying up so many ebooks over printed books was I'm in college so I don't have time, then it's I'm going to be moving out so I don't have space, now it's down to the real reason price. But is the price really worth the lack of a beautiful library displayed in your room or the ability to lend a friend your copy?

Now I think for a lot of people the eReader devices have pushed them to switch from physical copies to ebooks without much hesitancy. Why? Because with mass amount of indie authors now on the ebook market the ebook world seems to have more to offer than the "real" book world. I know that in my college years the only fictional books I read were the books I bought online, none were from my university's library. Though most libraries do offer a selection of ebooks now, as the libraries have adapted to grow with the electronic times, but that's another topic for another day. Point is if I was reading a book, it was more than likely in an electronic form than a paperback, or even the precious hardback book.

However, now that I'm free from the world of school, for now. I've slowly begun acquiring my library. I have always wanted to build my library to showcase all my favorite books and of course all the classics, but space and money have held me back from that dream. Well space is still an issue, but I've recently ditched that problem because I want to hold a book again. I miss that feel of the books and seeing them lined up ready for me to pick one to read. So the last and biggest issue in choosing ebooks over books is money, like most things in life money is the central issue. Certainly most readers have noticed that the majority of ebooks have a significantly lesser value than their printed counter parts. It's that price difference that really makes people stick to ebooks now instead of a printed book. 

Hence my big issue with the online book market when ebooks are sold at ten or twelve dollars and their printed versions cost about the same or maybe slightly more. With the ebooks you can't easily share it among your friends or show it off on a physical book shelf. So why should you pay that much for an ebook? A reader isn't allotted the same ownership rights with an ebook as they are with a printed book. Some ebooks do allow you to loan it out to a fellow ereader owner for a 2 week period, but there's a limit on how may people you can loan the ebook out to, sometimes it's only one person, so pick wisely. I'm of the mindset that ebooks should remain half the printed amount price, at least. I'm not at all trying to diminish the author's work, because obviously they need to make money. I know authors put in a lot of time, tears, & work, so they definitely deserve to be financially compensated for their creative efforts. 

Nevertheless the price for an ebook should always be significantly lower than a printed book based on the simple fact of quality of product. The ebook isn't delivered in any fancy new form, but is simply delivered to a device already purchased by the consumer. That's why I'm always open to free books and will only buy ebooks that are in my price range of $1.99 - $5.99 max. I just can't justify purchasing ebooks that I can't physically hold or display on a bookcase, knowing I paid $10 for it, that hurts my book buying budget. Now for me buying a paperback is okay but the hardbacks are definitely the thing to splurge on when I have the money for them. Plus I love being able to share my new books with my friends to get them into new authors and series, so having a ton of books in my elibrary only benefits me, not my friends. Printed books are just better to have on hand for all to share and care for in a world of electronics this & that. Honestly though the debate over ebooks & printed books isn't too much of a debate. It's more an issue of convenience and price, because once all the indie authors are available in printed versions at decent prices ebooks will most likely lose their appeal to true book lovers.  

"Wednesday's, Wonderings & Wanderings": Judging Books By Their Covers

We have all heard that wise old saying, "Don't judge a Book by it's cover." And for the most part I will say it is most definitely true, BUT I will prove that the saying maybe a bit too old to apply when talking about contemporary book covers.

You see back in the olden days, not even that long ago really, about 100 years ago maybe less, book covers were hardly a thing to really behold. I mean seriously I'm talking plain Jane books here. Sure some would have frilly drawings on the cover to set itself apart and grab your attention, like this book here shown above, however more than most would just be the solid binding on its own. Reason number one price. $$$! Book production was, and rather still is, an expensive production, especially hardcovers. Which is probably why any book lover may own more paperbacks in their library than hardbacks, one because of price and two because let's be honest hardbacks are a lot harder to handle when reading and carry around than paperbacks.

      

Now let's fast forward to today's advertising mass marketed media driven world. Everything must be top notch or it will be lost in the world. The examples to my right are just snippets of some of the more popularized books. They all use texts and color as their main selling points. Blue, Red and Yellow are the "IT" colors of advertising because they are attractive to the eye. Having Script on the book's exterior can help too in drawing the reader in to reading the front and get them interested. Both are things which back in the day old book covers weren't able to provide readers. So they relied on word of mouth, other advertising and the Author's prestige.

However, now a days many of the book covers have to be more and more movie poster quality in order to catch the readers attention or the book won't get huge attention. In fact two industries now exist in this time that didn't exist in the 1900 or the past when cover art wasn't a thing. Number one indie or self publish authors is a huge industry now, everyone and their mother can now be a published writer. That was definitely a career to be envied back in the day, but now with a click of a mouse your work can be published anywhere and everywhere you desire and for how much you choose (though it doesn't mean it'll be bought or read) Then there is the second industry of Cover Art Design, which in the wake of all those indie authors came the demand for unique and special cover art. Graphic Artists can now focus on this as an art form and get paid to design book art for authors who other wise would not have flashy book covers. The whole economics of supply and demand is starting to come into play here, and I might have actually learned something back in that high school class of economics. 

In any case it's clear the book industry world has definitely evolved from just caring about what the books said inside, but now it's about the presentation too, in fact it may be more about the exterior. So the saying "Don't judge a Book by it's cover," may still apply, but how can a reader be put at fault when authors and the book industry fuel them to see nothing but the cover as proof of what is on inside of the book? Should we all perhaps move to restore the old images of books and lessen the media hyped version of book covers? Or are readers too far gone to the point that movie like pictures for cover art are all they want and expect?

Option A

So in truth if you had to pick between reading Option A or Option B, Which would you choose?

Option B