[barrkel]

This is key: digital edition books are way overpriced compared to second-hand books. Personally, I slightly prefer second-hand fiction books to new books. There's something about the book being a bit worn, having some history in human hands, rather than being the product of mechanized industry and being shipped out of a factory into your hands.

And I delight in having a book that's perfect for lending (usually means gifting) to a friend or family member who I know will enjoy it.

[evilduck]

Fiction maybe, but nonfiction, especially computer related books, second-hand is near worthless. How valuable is a book on Python 2.2 today? Cost cutting with digital versions is a very welcome change.

[barrkel]

Almost every computer-related book I buy is theory or pragmatics related in the compilers, languages and type theory field. They're good for decades, for the most part.

[alecco]

Books about specific versions of software, yes. On the other hand other technical books, like CS, are a very different case and age slowly.

But following your example, Amazon sells "Learning Python" 2009 paperback for $34.64, while the Kindle /license/ version for the same edition is $25.75! And note the paperback version includes shipping costs. Paying 3/4 of the price for just a license on a single device is ridiculous, IMHO.

[pmcginn]

Sorry, but does Learning Python 2009 really have a single-device restriction?

Every single book I've purchased for my Kindle will work on my android phone, my Windows VM, and my Kindle. If I had an iPhone/iPad/iPod I could read on those as well. And they all sync, which means I am quite literally always have dozens of books with me. If I run down to the store and grab nothing more than my keys, phone, and wallet, I can catch up with my Instapaper queue while I wait on line.

If I go on a short weekend trip, I don't have to use up a fifth of my luggage on books so that I can have a book for the plane ride there and another for the ride back. If I'm stuck in an airport with nothing to read, I can jump online and download any one of over 600,000 titles (and that's just from Amazon! I also have the option of grabbing a free book from manybooks on my phone and emailing it to my kindle account.) If you want to talk about ridiculous pricing, go pay fucking $29.95 for a new hardcover in an airport and try not to appreciate having greater convenience and selection at under half the price in the space of half of a magazine in your bag.

I've been accused of being minimalist or utilitarian, and I can't wait for the day when I can afford to rebuy all of my hardcovers in an ebook format and dump the lot of them on a local library.

[jonhendry]

Learning Python is from O'Reilly. If you go to their website, they'll sell you a DRM-free .mobi ebook that is compatible with the kindle.

You'll pay quite a bit more, though. $39.99 for the ebook, compared to $54.99 for print.