Jeff Liebermann wrote on 9/17/2017 12:53 PM:
On Sun, 17 Sep 2017 01:01:54 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Tue, 12 Sep 2017 03:08:01 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

Either way, its nothing that a chemistry book can't fix. (They don't actually bite)

Book? This is the 21st century. Today, we do web pages, blogs,
forums, wikis, YouTube tutorials, online courses, and online reading.
Books are an anachronism.

What do you think still keeps Barnes and Noble and all of the
classrooms still churning? Ask about them when you go by the
applied sciences dept. at the local college.

Barnes and Noble stock has dropped -34% in the last year. 11 years
ago, the stock peaked at $30.31 but is currently at $7.15. They might
be churning for a few years more, but if the present trend continues,
they would not be a great investment opportunity.

Why they're still in business and why colleges prefer paper books to
electronic media is a messy question. I have a Kindle paper white
reader, a Google Nexus 7 tablet, and several Chromebooks, all of which
have the Kindle reader software installed, along with various other
eBook readers and converters. I'm a prolific reader of technical
publications and reports. The electronic readers have several
advantages over paper books. They take up less space, the documents
can be searched, and they don't get moldy when my roof leaks directly
over my bookshelf:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/home/slides/bookshelf.html
Yet, I prefer to read on paper instead of LCD and have to force myself
to read the eBook equivalent. The is reason is the same as why Barnes
and Noble is still in business... tradition, inertia, habit, and
resistance to change. The present trend towards digitized books will
continue until all the dinosaurs, like me, are gone.

LCD sucks because it gives eyestrain over longer reading sessions. ePaper
is better with much higher contrast, not unlike paper, hence the name.

That said, I don't read much longer than a magazine article these days. So
LCD is mostly fine for me. I would like to have an ePaper screen, but I'm
not willing to give up ownership of my reading material, so no Kindle for me.


Of course, the skools are even more conservative, even bordering on
reactionary. Electronic textbooks really cut into the textbook
vendors profits.

Nonsense. Electronic media *increases* profits due to lower production costs.

One thing that caught my attention when reading about the differences is the
idea of connecting emotionally with a book. I realized that I have done
this. The act of picking up a book to read creates a strong association
between a book and its contents. This doesn't happen with ebooks because
the reader is connected to so many other books and if the reader is a
laptop, so many other tasks.

--

Rick C

Viewed the eclipse at Wintercrest Farms,
on the centerline of totality since 1998