I totally don’t blame Scalzi for being sick of the arguments for self/digital publishing. I self/digital publish and I’m sick of the evangelizing, too. (Because most of the arguments are just shitty logic.)
HOWEVER.
There’s another side of the Electronic Publishing BINGO card: Printgasm BINGO, for those who believe that reading ebooks is just one step away from civilization sliding back into the primordial ooze.
![“Printgasm” BINGO card. Text: “B1: I can dog-ear the pages. B2 [in various colors]: I can highlight passages in books in color. B3: I can write margin notes in a book. B4: I can put a Post-It note in a book. B5: I can use pretty bookmarks. I1: I like the feel of a book. I2: I like the smell of a book. I3: Books are prettier than electronic files. I4: I can show off the cover to strangers. I5: I can look at books on shelves. N1: I can read books in the bookstore while I drink my coffee. N2: You’ll pry my print books from my cold, dead hands! N3: I’ve never read an ebook, but I hate them. Nya nya nya. HATE! N4: I like to see the books in my TBR stack. N5: I don’t need a machine to read books. G1: Books keep printers employed. G2: I can buy books used. G3: I can re-sell my books. G4: I can lend a book. G5: Books don’t have DRM. O1: I can burn a book for emergency fuel. O2: I can take a book to the beach. O3: I can use pages for emergency toilet paper. O4: I can read a book in the bathtub. O5: Books won’t break if dropped or sat on.](https://moriahjovan.com/talesofdunham/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/20110321_bingocard-scaled.jpg)
I’m afraid quite a few of those apply to me. Especially the “You’ll pry my print books from my cold, dead hands.”
Apart from my whole financial issues- (I don’t have an ebook reader and as soon as I get one I’ll NEED to buy 30 or so of my all time favorites so I can read them on it. I know myself enough to know how I work.) I also just process books in print differently. I can find a passage easily if I’m looking for something in a print book, “It was about x pages in and on the right/left page” whereas in an ebook finding a particular part may take 30 minutes. ugh
Oh also – I read in the bathtub. If an accident happens to a paper book I’m out $15 at the most. If an accident happens to an electronic reader…