Bookless Library

[Bison]

Also most famous books which have lost their copyright are available for a free download.  You can't beat a price of "free."

I wonder if the actual number of people reading things like Tom Sawyer and Ivanhoe has gone up since e-readers started exploding. When the latest Grisham book costs the same either in digits or dead tree edition, do people go load up on free books and read them b/c they're there rather than shell out $10 for electrons?  Those older ones are books they never would've bought off the shelf at $10, but free electronic ones seem like they'd be a nice grab.

No idea how you'd measure this, but it does spark my curiosity a bit.

This is one of the things that pisses me off and it isn't always true.  I've been wanting to get a copy of Dune for my Kindle, but I'll most likely get another paperback or go to the library and check it out.  It costs more than a paper copy and this is becoming increasingly true.  Saving the trees was always a bunch of bullcrap. 

[BanzaiCat]

Same here. I hate looking for a book for my Kindle on Amazon to see it's ridiculously expensive, or worse, moreso than the tree corpse version.

[Gusington]

I like trees but the smell of books is more gooder.

[airboy]

Also most famous books which have lost their copyright are available for a free download.  You can't beat a price of "free."

I wonder if the actual number of people reading things like Tom Sawyer and Ivanhoe has gone up since e-readers started exploding.  When the latest Grisham book costs the same either in digits or dead tree edition, do people go load up on free books and read them b/c they're there rather than shell out $10 for electrons?  Those older ones are books they never would've bought off the shelf at $10, but free electronic ones seem like they'd be a nice grab.

No idea how you'd measure this, but it does spark my curiosity a bit.

If basic economics holds (and it does), then a price of "free" will generate more consumption all things being equal than a price of "$6.99."
But, the products must be comparable for a easy scientific study.

Oddly enough, I have paid $1.99 to 5.99 for an anthology by an author when all of the books had lost copyright.  Sherlock Holmes series, H. Beam Piper series.  The reason I paid - the digitial copy I paid for had a digital index that would take you to each book in the anthology.  The free copies were book by book downloads that lacked a digital index.  That feature (especially when there are more than a score of books involved) was worth paying for.

[bayonetbrant]

Just because they're free to download doesn't mean they're being read though.  That's my real question.  Sure I've got about 10 freebies on my son's new Kindle for him to read.  But he's reading the new Rick Riordan book we paid for rather than the free Jules Verne stuff on there.

[Gusington]

That's the old adage about regular books too...purchased doesn't mean read.