I’ve always preferred paper books, but it is convenient to also have your library in ebook form for when you want to do a quick search.

Great topic Finner!

I love eBooks for a number of reasons, the most important for me are:

• If you buy a book in beta, you will be getting up-to-the minute info and be able to access the book at every step of the way until the final release (and even then before the book goes in print)
• You will usually continue to get updates even after the print version is released
• If you have a Kindle or e-ink device, you can read it almost anywhere, and the experience is generally very good

Having said that, I recently purchased Programming Erlang as a print book and that was mainly because it was written by Joe Armstrong (one of the fathers of Erlang, who is unfortunately no long with us ) and so it felt like there would be a little bit him here with me, however I’ve really enjoyed having a print book because it’s easier to highlight things - I usually write notes when reading a book but this hasn’t been needed with this book as I can simply go through the book again and just look through my highlights.

Here’s an example of one such highlight:

IMG_9614907×1210 87.5 KB

Going forward, I will probably continue to buy eBooks, not only are they better for the environment but I love all the benefits they have to offer (plus they are cheaper, and when you buy a lot of books like I do that can add up!)

I like physical books more because you don’t have to look at a screen, it has a more authentic feel. If it were an ebook I’d probably skim through it more than actually read.
I also don’t like looking at a screen too much. I do it anyways, but I feel like such a bad person when I use my phone for too long