7 ms·

Does anyone read books anymore? I recently went to the university Library I went to 15yrs back and I was shocked to see how few students were reading books. Mos

Does anyone read books anymore? I recently went to the university Library I went to 15yrs back and I was shocked to see how few students were reading books. Most were on their laptops presumably reading from e books.

doommius 4y ago
Printed books - > 300-400 € per semester. Ebooks from questionable sites - > free. + more and more material is from papers instead of books so pdf were easier unless you wanted to pay 20 cent per page printed at the university printers.
- Markoff 4y ago
  By questionable you mean unofficial, right? Because your wording seems to imply these sites are somehow bad.
  - kriops 4y ago
    They’re illegal.
    - Markoff 4y ago
      That entirely depends on the country.
  - topynate 4y ago
    No, 'unofficial' is a euphemism. They're questionable. It's just that sometimes the answer to the question is "who gives a damn?"
- q-big 4y ago
  > Printed books - > 300-400 € per semester. Ebooks from questionable sites - > free. + more and more material is from papers instead of books so pdf were easier unless you wanted to pay 20 cent per page printed at the university printers. As a student (or even researcher), you often gets these papers from similarly "questionable" websites because the typical university subscription for academic journals is not as encompassing as you need it for your studies/work.
senectus1 4y ago
yes, very very definitely.
asciimov 4y ago
Most people you see sitting at the library are doing class work or studying with online materials. If you want to see people using books, go up into the stacks or sit by the checkout desk.
bowsamic 4y ago
Why wouldn’t people still be reading books??
reedf1 4y ago
Text books are highly dense, and often complete works on a subject (or with reference to others forming a corpus of complete works). Some are kept up-to-date on a subject with annexes. Few wrote read textbooks, they are often used as reference or worked from. But textbooks can form a through line or a framework to guide you through a subject in a bespoke way - as pictured by an expert or team of experts.
faeriechangling 4y ago
Sure I read physical books, but for me they are one medium among many and don’t hold the mysticism that teachers imbued them with. They are very very big blocks of plaintext in sequential order. There’s only so many things books are good at. I’ve seen people buy paper books for classes with open book exams where ebooks are allowed and that’s just a mistake. I feel as ebook technology improves just a tad from where it is today so we get some great large format color I’m probably going to stop buying books to save my wallet and I feel long term the physical book will become a novelty and picked up by hipsters in the same fashion as vinyl.
mcv 4y ago
I can't seem to read from paper anymore. I read plenty online and from PDFs, but I really struggle to read a normal paper book. This also makes it harder for my kids to read. Too many screens, games and youtube, and they just don't want to read from paper. My oldest at least reads some manga online.
- stephenbennyhat 4y ago
  Are you sure you don't need reading glasses? I find reading from screens (such as an iPad) physically much easier than reading from paper. Getting dedicated reading glasses made a huge difference to this and I found reading from paper became enjoyable again.
  - mcv 4y ago
    I do have a second pair of glasses that's slightly weaker than my regular glasses, and I use them for reading. I still struggle to read actual paper books.
executesorder66 4y ago
> Does anyone read books anymore? No. Not a single person has read a paper book in the last 15 years. If you go into a book store right now and see someone buying a book with cash, then you can be sure they are a mule for a money laundering operation. The people in public spaces that are "reading books", the pages are actually all blank. They are paid actors employed by Big Publishing to keep the facade up that they are legitimate businesses, and are not just fronts for laundering money for drug cartels and the like. They are all in on it, and you better keep quiet, or they will be on to you.
- selimthegrim 4y ago
  The birds (which aren’t real) are reading the books
pwinnski 4y ago
A university library would be the last place I'd expect to see people reading books. Try a non-university library, an airport, a beach, a coffee shop, poolside, or any number of other places, but university libraries are for studying and doing homework, not usually reading books.

doommius 4y ago

Printed books - > 300-400 € per semester. Ebooks from questionable sites - > free. + more and more material is from papers instead of books so pdf were easier unless you wanted to pay 20 cent per page printed at the university printers.

Markoff 4y ago
By questionable you mean unofficial, right? Because your wording seems to imply these sites are somehow bad.
- kriops 4y ago
  They’re illegal.
  - Markoff 4y ago
    That entirely depends on the country.
- topynate 4y ago
  No, 'unofficial' is a euphemism. They're questionable. It's just that sometimes the answer to the question is "who gives a damn?"
q-big 4y ago
> Printed books - > 300-400 € per semester. Ebooks from questionable sites - > free. + more and more material is from papers instead of books so pdf were easier unless you wanted to pay 20 cent per page printed at the university printers. As a student (or even researcher), you often gets these papers from similarly "questionable" websites because the typical university subscription for academic journals is not as encompassing as you need it for your studies/work.

senectus1 4y ago

yes, very very definitely.

asciimov 4y ago

Most people you see sitting at the library are doing class work or studying with online materials. If you want to see people using books, go up into the stacks or sit by the checkout desk.

bowsamic 4y ago

Why wouldn’t people still be reading books??

reedf1 4y ago

Text books are highly dense, and often complete works on a subject (or with reference to others forming a corpus of complete works). Some are kept up-to-date on a subject with annexes. Few wrote read textbooks, they are often used as reference or worked from. But textbooks can form a through line or a framework to guide you through a subject in a bespoke way - as pictured by an expert or team of experts.

faeriechangling 4y ago

Sure I read physical books, but for me they are one medium among many and don’t hold the mysticism that teachers imbued them with. They are very very big blocks of plaintext in sequential order. There’s only so many things books are good at. I’ve seen people buy paper books for classes with open book exams where ebooks are allowed and that’s just a mistake. I feel as ebook technology improves just a tad from where it is today so we get some great large format color I’m probably going to stop buying books to save my wallet and I feel long term the physical book will become a novelty and picked up by hipsters in the same fashion as vinyl.

mcv 4y ago

I can't seem to read from paper anymore. I read plenty online and from PDFs, but I really struggle to read a normal paper book. This also makes it harder for my kids to read. Too many screens, games and youtube, and they just don't want to read from paper. My oldest at least reads some manga online.

stephenbennyhat 4y ago
Are you sure you don't need reading glasses? I find reading from screens (such as an iPad) physically much easier than reading from paper. Getting dedicated reading glasses made a huge difference to this and I found reading from paper became enjoyable again.
- mcv 4y ago
  I do have a second pair of glasses that's slightly weaker than my regular glasses, and I use them for reading. I still struggle to read actual paper books.

executesorder66 4y ago

> Does anyone read books anymore? No. Not a single person has read a paper book in the last 15 years. If you go into a book store right now and see someone buying a book with cash, then you can be sure they are a mule for a money laundering operation. The people in public spaces that are "reading books", the pages are actually all blank. They are paid actors employed by Big Publishing to keep the facade up that they are legitimate businesses, and are not just fronts for laundering money for drug cartels and the like. They are all in on it, and you better keep quiet, or they will be on to you.

selimthegrim 4y ago
The birds (which aren’t real) are reading the books

pwinnski 4y ago

A university library would be the last place I'd expect to see people reading books. Try a non-university library, an airport, a beach, a coffee shop, poolside, or any number of other places, but university libraries are for studying and doing homework, not usually reading books.