[philipithomas]

I love o'reilly publications, but I remain a fan of printed books. Specifically in technical texts, I like being able to scan and leaf through physical pages. If they had a special on printed books today, I would buy a couple; alas, with this special, my wallet remains closed.

[babarock]

As much as I agree with you, I find that the ability to run a grep (or the more commont Ctrl+F) to quickly look for what I'm looking for of very high value. I usually enjoy reading the book from front to cover, but as soon as I want to consult it again for reference, I am happy to have the computer do the search work for me.

Other than that, I often read on the (crowded) subway ride to work. Carrying a 600 page book is often a pain in the ass, compared to the lightweight feeling of my Kindle.

On the other hand, I completely relate to the pleasure of the physical page. I also enjoy very much watching my collection of books slowly expand on my shelves.

I wish there were a model where buying a physical copy of the book would entitle you to the digital one or vice-versa. I think both have their advantages in different situations.

[matthewbadeau]

Manning Publications offers free ebooks when you buy physical copies. (http://manning.com/)

[philipithomas]

I have access to Safari Books through my university, so this hasn't yet been a problem, but it's a fair point.

However, when I'm searching for something precise, a google search / help documentation usually suffices. When I'm reading a book, it's generally in search of more deep understanding or just the process of learning in general - i.e. more long-form learning. For the latter I would still prefer printed.

[AlisdairO]

I've bought an onyx m92 ( http://www.onyx-boox.com/onyx-boox-m92 ) which has got me fairly close to this capability for reading PDFs (it's an ipad-sized device). It comes with a stylus which allows you to tap a specific point in the progress bar to change pages. Much easier than scanning back and forth using a kindle.

It's still not quite up to the standard of flipping back and forth in a book, but it's tolerable. I've also changed my reading flow to make a lot more bookmarks of interesting parts of the book, and use search more. Given the other advantages (portability, price of books) it's a solution that's working out really well for me, and allows me to read a lot more technical books than I would if I had to lug them about in print form.

[mark_l_watson]

I mostly agree with you but having eBooks on a separate Kindle and iPad makes it a little more convenient to hack while reading.

[btian]

I quite like being able to search through ebooks.