booksvsebooks[1] You know that “print vs. e-books” debate we’re always covering here? The New York Times has an interesting article looking at it from a novel new angle: what happens in households where one person favors print and the other prefers e-books.

In looking at these little “toilet seat up or down” style disputes, the article is often rather amusing.

“[My wife] talks about the smell of the paper and the feeling of holding it in your hands,” said Mr. de Halleux, 32, who says he thinks the substance is the same regardless of medium. He added, sounding mildly piqued, “She uses the word ‘real.’ ”

The e-book device industry is taking note of these mixed couples, and trying to figure out how to convert the print-book-only holdout to an e-reader, too (“One of us! One of us!”) or else fit both parties with a single deal, e.g., print-plus-e-book bundling.

The article quotes Mike Shatzkin on the more emotional attachment people often feel to printed books, and provides a few examples in that vein of the odd, irrational way that books vs. e-books affects some people.

“I brought a book with me and I barely read it,” said Ms. Muskat, a media consultant. “We used to go to the beach and we’d both take out books, but [my husband] had an iPad, and it was almost distracting because it didn’t feel like he was reading with me.”

It highlights the uphill battle that e-book vendors have in some way—it’s easy to come out with feature after feature, and even tell the customer how a feature actually benefits them rather than just enumerating what it is (a sales technique I learned about in the sales classes that went with my tech support position). But it’s hard to fight an irrational attitude because by its very nature it simply doesn’t respond to logic.

It may well be that e-books will never fully take over until the adulthood of today’s younger generations, who will have never known life without them.

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5 COMMENTS

  1. When I talk to friends about e-books, they ask about price–both for e-books and the device itself. Price, especially for books, seems to be an issue. One of my friends dismissed e-books, by saying she buys used books. It wasn’t about the turning pages, or smell of paper–it was a all about price.

    E-books and print books are price sensitive. The e-book market surged ahead when Amazon promoted best sellers for $9.99. For someone looking into e-books for the first time, book price would be a big factor in making a decision to get one. In my opinion, the price factors are the real deciding ones.

    Then there is the issue of DRM. Didn’t we go through this hassle with MP3’s? DRM needlessly complicates buying and choosing a reader. It probably also discourages people from switching to digital books.

  2. The only issues for me if I had a partner that liked paper would be a) where he would be storing said paper. I am a minimalist and loathe clutter and b) how to purchase new books of mutual interest. We would not be buying them twice! There would be no philosophical issue. I have no problem with someone preferring something I don’t prefer.

  3. Well, most of the time I’d imagine that a couple won’t like all the same books, and they’d have their own separate libraries and can buy whatever they like. If there is a book they want to share, the original buyer gets dibs on medium. Neither an e-book nor p-book fan should be absolutely opposed to either format. If they are going to be so obstinate about it, they’ll just have to pay extra for 2 copies or not share books. Sounds simple to me.

  4. I don’t believe e-books are in an uphill battle to convince the public of their merits. The market is growing nicely, quickly, and without much resistance that I can see. These rants from some in publishing (including authors which I find just bizarre), as encapsulated by the woman in the NY Times piece, don’t appear to be detering anyone from making the switch.

    I also don’t believe this is as much a generational thing as some other home technologies: readers of all ages are reaching for e-readers. I was standing in line at country cafe — population 250 — and a girl of about 15 had her Sony PRS-300 with her, reading while waiting (I’d left my Kobo in the car). The day I bought my Kobo, three of us were in line and the average age was over 60. A great number of e-reader folk are enjoying renewed use of their library — one can only assume many of those people are older generation.

    It’s true that logic will not convince everyone — welcome to human nature. Salt, alcohol and smoking aren’t good for anyone in the amounts most of us indulge … and most of us logically know that and still indulge. The benefits of e-readers, however, are compelling and as the devices gain more visibility, more people will acquire and use them because the benefits are real.

  5. I agree fully Alexander. I don’t buy the dispute concept either.

    There is no sign that the eBook market is being slowed by this issue and I don’t see it doing so.

    While saying that I still believe as I have often opined, that paper books will be with us for many many decades to come.

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