Digital or Physical Book?

spinaltap

My daughter works for a prominent international publisher. Her primary role is in marketing digital products. However, (ironically) she loves owning physical books: it's all about the touch, feel, and smell of them.

Myself, I prefer digital downloads on my iPad. My house isn't cluttered with previously read books. Also, when a revised version of a digital book is published I automatically receive the all-new/revised version at no cost.

Our positions are reversed when comes to music: I much prefer owning the physical product, while my daughter's preference is for digital downloads.

Even so, which do you prefer: buying/owning a physical book, or downloading?

Steve N

Physical book for me.
I read in bed and normally drop the book several times before giving up and turning the light off
Would'nt like the do that with a digital device.
Also - I like reading historical stuff and have pages turned down on relevant maps near the front and reference pages near the back. Not very state of the art but gives me instant access.

To my mind if it's not broken don't fix it.

richardb70

Digital books for me. I tend to read a lot of beefy tomes (e.g. Robin Hobb) so far more convenient. Getting a Paperwhite was one of the best purchases in recent years! I'd never read on a tablet.

On the other hand, books I read to my children are all physical.

WibXL

I prefer to own physical books but I find digital to be more convenient so that's what I tend to buy. Unless it's some kind of manual in which case I always go with the actual copy. Manuals and instruction books just seem easier to use when you can flick through them.

tazmago

My preference would be a physical book.  I love the feel and smell of a physical book, I think digital books just feel too clinical.   Thats not to say I don't enjoy my Kindle, and lately I tend to buy more digital books than physical, purely due to the fact I have hundreds of physical books and I just don't have the room for many more .

Synchro

Digital for general reading.  Hard copy for books I really like.

Mark One

Definitely digital for me, even though I've a fairly large library of paperbacks, have found it's certainly more convenient and portable to use my phone.

ssbib

I used to hate digital books...weren't for me. But I changed my mind this time last year and got a kindle paper white for Christmas and I love it. Won't go back now. It annoys me sometimes when you get weird formatting errors (don't think I've read one book without one to be honest) but for convenience and backlight etc they're so good. I do miss the thrill of getting a new real book and definitely the smell but I won't be going back anytime soon.

nheather

Unabridged audio books for me.

Cheers,

Nigel

BlueOrange25

It depends.  

I much prefer physical copies but I can't deny the convenience and space saving values of a Kindle.  Living in a London flat and having moved three times in the last four years, I try to (unsuccessfully) limit the amount of stuff I have.

I don't mind double dipping if I see a really nice hardback edition.  Outside of that, for novels, I'm almost always digital.  

The exceptions are for cookbooks or history books which I prefer in physical form (and in hardback).