[coldpie]

I tried ebooks for a few months, a few years ago. What killed it for me is I can't lend them out. I often read a book and recommend it to a friend, and even hand them the book to read if they happen to be at my house. Even just for those few months, this happened often enough to be a pain. So I stopped and went back to buying physical books.

I suppose e-readers are more useful for people who read _lots_ of books. I read maybe a dozen fiction novels per year. If I read at two or three times that rate, I can see managing a physical collection becoming too much of a hassle.

[VLM]

"What killed it for me is I can't lend them out."

Also, gifts.

In the future it seems likely that books you buy for yourself will be ebooks and books you get as a gift from someone, as an interior decoration, will be physical books. This has some pretty big implications for brick and mortar layout and design. If you segment the gift marketplace aggressively enough you probably don't need as many physical books, bookstores could end up being very small stores rather than the trend toward library sized palaces.

[chrisbennet]

Same here. B&N is "my" bookstore but I only buy eBooks to read on the plane. Lending and borrowing books is nice way of connecting with friends. You can technically loan (some) ebooks in the Nook ecosystem - but only for 2 weeks and you have to add them to your "group" or something.

[coldpie]

The shackles that digital purchases bind you with make me resist buying digital whenever possible. Subscription services, like Netflix, are a whole different, and interesting, beast.