Old Books
I used to buy books from bookshops and roadside old book sellers as I thought they would be useful to me and my son someday but with everything going digital, I hardly think that my son will use the printed versions and whether it is worth preserving the old books for him. I still prefer the printed books than e-books as it is more comfortable to read and longer lasting. (With all scientific advancements, still none of the digital processes cannot last as long as a book does. Thousands of years old books still preserved well whereas the books in CDs and DVDs have already corrupted.)
I have a pretty good library mostly with English books. When I was an English teacher I used to buy more books than today. Though I did not have time to read most of them, I had the habit of collecting them. It is only now, after 10 years, that I have started reading them. I have both western classics and thrillers. For some classics, I need a literature teacher’s help to enjoy. I have few people whom I can contact over the phone to get occasional explanations on books.
Reading e-books became a recent habit. The first e-book I read was Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons. It is a thriller and a page turner. So could finish reading faster. I have two more of Brown’s books and will read them in future. It was today I read in this link that e-book sales in the USA has surpassed the paper books. http://mashable.com/2012/06/17/ebook-hardcover-sales/
I feel like investing on a Kindle, the latest e-book reader. It promises a lot in its website and am impatient to test one. Two of my friends have bought them and I still didn’t see the item. Must be pretty handy.
I was not interested in audio books till Nuwan Samaranayake from Houston coaxed me to listen to one. My first audio book was Barrack Obama’s “Dreams from My Father.” It was an exciting experience to listen to the book by Obama’s own voice. I later listened to Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and now listening to Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.”
I don’t know what form the books will take in future. Whatever the form it may take, a book is something interesting and the readers will be there to read or listen to the book.
Nanda Wanninayaka 
You should get a Kindle. It is now very cheap. $79.
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@ICT4D
How much with tax and shipping?
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I recently orederd the book “The Prince” written by Machiavelli, Niccolò. I couldn’t beleive that it was only 4.95 dollars. It is very cheap in price . Not only that. It’s philosophy is very cheaply used by 95% of politicians all over the world including Srilankan politicians from
JR to MR. NayanaWanni
.
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There are free copies of e-books and audio books of The Prince. You can search for them. I downloaded them free. There is no harm in buying the book if you can afford it. A paperbook is more comfortable to read than an e-book.
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Wanni, you should get a kindle. You can not only read kindle books but you can read pdf files. The $79 kindle is pretty good. But the Kindle keyboard for $99 is better. It is like reading a book. I now exclusively buy most of my books in ebook format just because of the convenience. I travel and I can take dozens of books anywhere.
About the audiobooks, I love them mainly because it fits my life style. I am busy and have no time to read. I can listen to these books in the car or any other place. The experience is not exactly the same as reading a book. But it is a better choice than no reading books at all.
Ebooks and Audiobooks may not completely replace printed books or the enjoyment people hold with that. However, our lives are not getting any simpler. To a busy and dynamic life Ebooks and Audiobooks serves well. Both these formats personally work very well for me and thankful for these technologies I am reading more books than ever. For a retiree, perhaps paper books will give more pleasure.
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Wanni , dont waste money on Kindle or iPad (unless you have better and more productive things to do with an iPad) … Audio Books are the way to go i feel. They are highly addictive. Who would like to read, when someone else is doing the job for you. what you have to do is just “Listen”.. isnt that why we loved our grandmother when we were young ;).
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I agree. Audio books have worked for me well and it should work well for Wanni too. For me I mainly use ebooks for my technical books since there are not technical books in audio. Audio books should work for most of the regular books. Still ebooks or printed books are necessary to learning type of books.
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