iBooks and Digital Media

Last week’s post was originally to be titled “iBooks and Amazon Prime” and I was going to explain what it was that made me cancel my Amazon Prime subscription. I sort of did that but without really covering any of the details. In this post I want to outline my new media acquisition strategy (which is a pretentious way of saying “here’s how I buy books”).

For years I, like everyone else, bought paperbacks and hardbacks as they were published and whenever they looked like good value for money. It was only after the collapse of the Net Book Agreement in the mid-90s, which until then prevented supermarkets and other parties (Amazon, for example) from selling discounted books, that I could afford to buy a decent number of books. With hindsight it seems strange that competition in the book market could ever have been prohibited and that this might have been believed to be advantageous to consumers.

In these enlightened times, however, you can buy books pretty much anywhere and for far less than the normal cover price. For example, Steve Job’s biography has a cover price, in hardback, of £25 but Amazon are selling it for £11.97 and a Kindle (or iBooks) version costs £12.99 (you might expect e-books to be cheaper than their physical counterparts but, unlike “real” books, they aren’t exempt from VAT).

The major problem with traditional books is that they’re physically large; taking hardbacks on holiday, or reading a paperback on the train requires planning and effort (and frankly I’m too lazy). The size of books restricts the number you can carry and actively prevents spontaneous reading, for example when the wife is looking a clothes and you’re bored in the shopping centre. The solution to this is to stop buying physical books and instead to buy everything through either iBooks or Kindle (I prefer iBooks but Kindle isn’t significantly less convenient).

This has three major advantages:

1. Delivery is free and almost instantaneous - no waiting for the post or delivery van, 
2. Many books can be carried on a single device so your entire library is available, wherever you are, 
3. You are suddenly freed of the need to store and transport a load of bleached dead tree flesh which, except in a few cases, adds little to the reading experience. 

These are, to me, pretty strong arguments. Many people like to have physical media but I honestly can’t see the appeal; books and bookshelves take up lots of space, can’t be easily searched and resist being backed-up. Every time you move house you have to pack everything up in boxes and carry them to and fro. Post-physical is definitely better.

So that’s it - I buy all my media in digital form, books from iBooks, music and film from iTunes. I now read more (on the bus, on the train, on holiday, at home) and I also listen to a wider range of music. And the house is less cluttered.