[paultannenbaum]

For me as a consumer, the format is very much correlated with price. I am always willing to spend more money for a physical copy of a book than the digital version. For them as publishers, it also costs less to come to market with a digital versions, and so should be reflected in the price. I do hear what your saying about value being derived from content, but without a free preview of a couple chapters and a price that I deemed to high, I ended up passing.

[khedoros]

If I don't think about it, yes, a physical version seems to be worth more, because I feel like I'm actually buying a "thing", rather than just paying for access to information. It feels nicer to know that printing it cost the publisher more to produce; there's a sense of fairness. It's an interesting psychological effect.

[doomtop]

A physical book can also be interacted with and utilized, physically, in ways a digital copy cannot.

[khedoros]

And the same can be said about the digital version. You can use it in ways that you can't use a physical one. Which is better is completely a matter of preference, IMO.

Physical: It's pleasant, intuitive, and the tactile aspects change as you go through the book. Page layout and the feel of flipping through the book can be nice mnemonic devices.

Digital: I can carry a few thousand books on my pocket, put copies on all my devices, do full text searches, follow hyperlinks in the document, etc.