Of course.
But the book itself doesnt disappear from record when your own device dies - or when you lose or destroy your own paper copy.
Whichever version you choose doesnt change that.
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Paper is simply more practical and durable. Paper books can last hundreds of years if looked after. You also can’t take an e-book to the beach or read it in the bath. it’s fine if people enjoy using this way to read, but not ok if it replaces access to real books in the long term.
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That’s an interesting point, because if someone wanted to control the information we have access to remotely, it would be so easy to do this by controlling and mass-withholding certain e books and e literature. The way that devices are going “thin” with cloud based storage enhances the power of a third party to wipe anything considered undesirable from all devices in some dystopian future society.
In Bradbury’s Farenheit 451 they have the “firemen” whose job is to hunt and destroy access to paper books. In our society we are making it so much easier.
Why not? (not that I have a bath but you couldn’t take a paper book into a shower either)
Fatuous argument.
Because you cannot get sand into it and it reflects the sunlight. Getting sand between the pages of a book won’t ruin it. Also you might be getting to the juicy part of the story when you run out of actual juice and get the power out sign.
You can’t take a tablet into the shower either. But you can read a book while having a soak in the tub.
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Again why not? Why would sand hurt it?
No - I think the opposite - the fact that written word is stored electronically - means it is much harder to destroy it or limit its access to people
and anyway I decide how to read based on what suits me, not some hypothetical of world takeovers.
it will ruin the tablet if sand gets inside and you can’t get it out without opening it up.
it’s only stored while the tech exists. Our tech is transitory. I have had to bin a whole library of vhs videos that no longer have tech to run them. The same will likely happen to the DVDs and CDs. Tech moves so fast these days that any data saved will be lost in the next ten to twenty years max. The storage device is only good until it breaks or the tech moves to the next version. The cloud is totally out of our control and could be removed at any point in the future.
Actually you can get e readers/covers which are water proof - not to read underwater but for reading in the bath and suchlike.
reflecting sunlight is a non issue - e readers have light adjustment so you can change the brightness for inside or outside reading - I do that all the time.and if you have a protective screen cover, sand wont hurt either. Or spilt coffee or whatever.
Yes it is possible you run out of charge at the crucial point in story (and cannot hotpsot from your phone or plug in to a charger) - but e readers have a long charge life - that is unlikely to happen.
I am converted to e reading now - but I am not trying to convert anyone else - enjoy paper books if you prefer them but you seem to be finding problems with e reading that actually dont exist.
My ebook is not a tablet and it is sealed, sand cannot get in. It is not waterproof but then neither are books as my bird book has discovered.
I don’t have a tub to soak in, personally I find the idea of lying in my own dirty water rather distasteful.
I dont mean our own copies on our own devices - that would happen if we lost a paper book or it got burnt in a fire or whatever - I mean the storage of the originals. Which no doubt are stored in more than one place or system.
the movies you lost on VHS tapes -they are not destroyed from existence because you no longer have your copy. They are not even destroyed for you - you can get VHS data transferred to other formats - most people wouldn’t bother doing that for movies because they can more easily get it in new format - but have known many people to d o so for old family footage.
I know people enjoy using e-books. It’s not for me not and I am fine with people enjoying and embracing this tech, as long as it doesn’t mean that it’s used as an excuse to prevent access to paper books.
Time will tell ref my view ref reliance on digital/electronics. I predict the whole WWW, cloud etc imploding at some point in the future with vast repercussions as there are enormous risks embedded in our increasing reliance on the infrastructure & assumption that it will be permanent, but that is another subject.
It’s not worth doing this because the quality of image is reliant on the old style transmitters. I was very annoyed when I first purchased a new smart telly and found that the DVD player did not play images in the same quality as the old panasonic viera, which again hadn’t played images as well as the old fashioned non-flat screen panasonic. So having to buy a special new dvd player then following purchase of the smart telly, having to keep the old viera just for watching DVDs because the smart telly would require a whole new set of DVDs using some new tech. The laptop I had with a CD/DVD drive is now dying a death of slowness. These devices seem to be programmed to self-destruct by a certain date.
It’s just an example of how quickly some of this tech reaches obsolescence these days. Over the course of less than 15 years two lots of tech are ready to bin. While I still have a CD player in the car, many how use just bluetooth tech, so you have to repurchase songs (or if you have the patience and knowledge you can spend hours of fun trying to convert from one system to another).
I have a friend who transferred his old VHS tapes of various recordings onto a new tech format during Covid lockdown. It’s not my thing to do that sort of fiddly nonsense. I just lament the cost and duplication of having to purchase and repurchase my favourites.
Just download the Bluray version from the internet thing, smashing quality and it’s free.
I remember in Gullivers Travels the Lilliputians argued about which end of the egg you cracked.This thread reminded me of that. 
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And I’m sure people who read ebooks are fine with people enjoying paper books.
To each his own.
Most of the comments were simply refuting your objections about reading in the bath,the sun, running out of charge etc as being non issues.
My other point, which is being ignored, is the threat of access to supply of real paper books for the population because there is an assumption e-books will replace the real thing. There is also an economic argument against e-books as those from poorer households cannot afford the hardware.
My main point was not reading in the bath but the tech infrastructure underpinning the service being short-term and unstable and ownership of the licence to your e-books not belonging to you in the long term. Hence my example about movies I purchased on google play no longer showing as purchased since their move to you tube.
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Books smell lovely, of paper, glue & print, specially new books. You don’t get that smell with an e reader.
I can see that e readers are useful if you are going on holiday etc. You can’t cart a load of books around easily, but e readers are not for me.
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Well people refuted the points about reading i n the bath, sun etc because you brought them up…
I don’t think there is any threat of paper books being replaced etc - I think you are vastly overstating the liklihood of any such problems.
and e-readers are not at all expensive. Or don’t buy a separate reader - use your phone or tablet. Almost everybody has a mobile phone.
I use my Samsung tablet - I dont have a separate e reader device.
it is really just a personal choice thing - if you prefer the feel, smell, whatever of paper books - read them. If you prefer e books for whatever reason, read them.
Nothing more to it than that.