E-books low on bookbuyers' shopping lists?

[Hopscotch]

How many books Americans own — and how they organize them
YouGov   October 26, 2023

“…YouGov polled more than 29,000 Americans about their book-owning habits….85% say they owned at least one physical book….One in five Americans (20%) say they own between one and 10 physical books, while 14% own between 11 and 25 books, and 13% between 26 and 50.

“Overall, counting the 9% who say they own no physical books, at least 69% of Americans own no more than 100 books (6% are unsure how many they own). Another 25% own at least 100 books, including 4% who own between 500 and 1,000 books, and 3% who own more than 1,000 volumes….

“Physical books are a much more common thing for Americans to own than electronic books or e-books. Only around half of Americans say they own even one e-book, and only 9% of Americans say they own at least 100 e-books….”

https://today.yougov.com/society/articles/47712-how-many-books-americans-own-and-how-they-organize-them

[Bill Hiatt]

Poll results can sometimes be influenced by the wording of questions, by errors in the estimated demographics, by how the poll was conducted, and by other factors.

It's also important to keep in mind that ebooks are a relatively new thing. Statistics that look at book ownership don't adjust for how long people have owned books. They merely take a snapshot of what's on real or virtual shelves right now.

There are also some subsets of consumers who naturally prefer physical books or have no other choice. Children's picture books come to mind. So do books for people with vision issues, who may not be able to handle as much screen time and/or find large print physical books more comfortable.

Statistics rooted in book ownership aren't a good measure of book readership. There are people in KU with a one book a day habit who may not own any books. And in general, people who are struggling financially will be much more likely to borrow books from the library or trade books with friends. There at least used to be whole communities based on trading books with each other. I used to know a used book store that offered people selling books to them more if they took store credit rather than cash. I discovered this was to attract people who were quick turnover readers who wanted books at a cheap price. Most of the bookstore's customers fell into that category. These were people who didn't own books, at least not for very long. But they read quite a bit.

Anyway, I must be freak of nature, my book purchases limited primarily by space. So I guess I have more physical books than ebooks, but I actually prefer the ebook format, especially for books I buy for research.

[R. C.]

Poll results can sometimes be influenced by the wording of questions, by errors in the estimated demographics, by how the poll was conducted, and by other factors.
...

Poll results are ALWAYS influenced by the questions and/or who is asking.

R.C.

[Post-Crisis D]

In a cold winter, when the gas is shutoff and the electrical grid is down, eBooks won't keep you warm.

[LilyBLily]

In a cold winter, when the gas is shutoff and the electrical grid is down, eBooks won't keep you warm.

But as in Act I of La Boheme, physical books won't keep you warm for long.

[Jeff Tanyard]

In a cold winter, when the gas is shutoff and the electrical grid is down, eBooks won't keep you warm.

A thousand years from now, historians will look upon the current time as a Dark Age due to the lack of written records.  Some calamity will have happened--a solar flare, EMP, silicon-eating bacteria, whatever--that will destroy the internet and all electronic records.  Only tangible books will remain, and then only those made of highly durable stuff, not ordinary paper.

You guys are selling parchment editions of your books, right?   ;)

But as in Act I of La Boheme, physical books won't keep you warm for long.

La Bo-heem?

La bohème.  It's an opera.

 

Almost that time of year again...

[CaptnAndy]

As an insatiable reader since I was 11, I have purchased or checked out of libraries thousands of books. By the time I retired for the fourth time, my vision kept me from reading anything but large print books, and I donated all my remaining printed books.
Then, I discovered ebooks, and bought a Nook, which could display larger founts.
Today, I use my fifth Kindle and a tablet to read mostly Kindle books which I either purchase or check out of my local library.
With 25 of my own books on Amazon, my printed book sales come primarily from the four Alternate History books and are a fraction of my ebook sales. I am on KU, and that income usually matches the sales income.

[Lorri Moulton]

Actually, clay tablets are your best bet for preservation. Papyrus doesn't last...which is why the Greeks are remembered more than the Phoenicians.

Those clay tablets hold up much better when cities are sacked and burned.

[Bill Hiatt]

Climate and storage also make a difference.

Many of the discoveries of lost manuscripts over the past 100 years have been in Egypt. Most scientists cite the climate as being ideal. When I was in college, archaeologists discovered what I think is still the only surviving example of Greek New Comedy (Menander's Dyskolos). There must have been a lot more copies of it in Greece to start with, even considering the spread of Hellenic culture that started with Alexander the Great. Yet Egypt is the only place where it survived.

A lot of the early New Testament fragments also come from Egypt, as do the surviving Greek magical papyri, as do many of the surviving Gnostic works (from the Nag Hammadi Library).

The other exceptional case is the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were preserved in a cave in (I think) clay jars or something like that. From there, we got manuscripts of biblical books that were 1000 years older than what we had previously, as well as fragments or even complete manuscripts for books that have otherwise been lost.

[Jeff Tanyard]

I would add that war and vandalism in general are probably the biggest factors of all.  Climate, literary materials, and storage conditions cease to be relevant when the whole storage site is bombed to smithereens or intentionally put to the torch by an invading army.

[LilyBLily]

I would add that war and vandalism in general are probably the biggest factors of all.  Climate, literary materials, and storage conditions cease to be relevant when the whole storage site is bombed to smithereens or intentionally put to the torch by an invading army.

The library of Alexandria. Sigh.

[writeway]

This poll is straight BS. Definitely doesn't mirror the reading public I am seeing. I wouldn't be surprised if NONFICTION readers read more physical books but fiction readers? No way. Many fiction readers read primarily ebooks now and haven't touched a print book in years. Those still buying print who read genre fiction seem to be becoming obsolete. Even senior citizens read only ebooks now.

Also, a poll of 29,000 people is supposed to mean something when there are millions of readers in the country? Nah, I call BS on this poll. Probably taken by someone with an agenda anyway. As others say you gotta look at who is doing these polls and what their objective is.

29,000 Americans????? Not even a million?  We're supposed to glean something substantial from this teeny tiny amount of people? There are 331 million people in the United States. I know all don't read but I am guessing it's way more than 29,000. It's laughable really that 29,000 people are supposed to reflect a reading audience of millions? Yeah, okay. That's not even a crumb on a cake.

[Hopscotch]

This poll is straight BS. Definitely doesn't mirror the reading public I am seeing. I wouldn't be surprised if NONFICTION readers read more physical books but fiction readers? No way. Many fiction readers read primarily ebooks now and haven't touched a print book in years. Those still buying print who read genre fiction seem to be becoming obsolete. Even senior citizens read only ebooks now.

Yep, a poll's a poll, some are straight and some are straight .  But your own assertions made only on personal observation seem to me as limited.  Eg, why say "even senior cits read only ebooks now" when, according to my city bus free ride pass, I'm in that category but I hate/hate reading ebooks, and my poll of me is definitive?  The larger issue this perhaps limited poll raises is how few books most people buy and read.

[Bill Hiatt]

Polls can provide valuable information, and 29,000 isn't a small sample size. However, whatever raw data is generated needs to be adjusted to reflect demographics.

We can see how this affects political polling. It's relatively easy to weight responses based on demographics so that if a particular group is 30% of the population, that group's responses are weighted to produce 30% of the total. However, in political polling, it's not just how large a group is but what percentage of a group actually votes, and that's where the process gets tricky. Voting rates change with each election, and different groups don't always change in the same way. So how polling responses are weighed demographically relies on previous patterns and guesswork. Polls in 2012 underestimated Democratic strength. Polls in 2016 and 2020 underestimated Republican strength. And different polling organizations produce different results based on samples taken during the same time period. (Of course, a major news story that breaks in the middle of a sample can also impact results.)

The problem with using only one poll to draw a conclusion is partly that 20 different organizations polling at the same time but with different methodologies would get slightly different results (or in some cases, enormously different results). But at least with political polling, we have past turnout and data on how different groups actually voted. Is there such data available for readers? I've not heard of such a thing. That suggests that a pollster would need to have a sample that accurately reflects the population (which is a lot of work). Otherwise, the pollster is drawing conclusions from raw data that could be extremely misleading.

[TimothyEllis]

It is very possible to get a totally wrong perspective depending on where you get the poll people from.

For example, if you did that poll on Worldcon members, who vote on the Hugos, you'd get that result. Because those people are predominantly paperback readers.

That's why 29,000 is a very small sample for such a poll. You don't know where that sample came from.

That sort of poll needs to be at least a million imo, and setup in a way that there is no bias to any reading media involved. And that needs to be spelled out for the data to be trustworthy.

[Post-Crisis D]

My mother who is a senior citizen will not touch eBooks.  She has a computer, iPad and iPhone but will not have anything to do with eBooks.  I've told her she can adjust the font size for easy reading and that she can read right on her iPad which she uses for other things but no.  She will only read books printed on paper.

Granted, that's a sampling of one but, as Hopscotch demonstrates, I'm sure she's not the only one.

I tend to prefer printed books too.  I don't need to charge anything to read them, for one thing.  They're also not subject to being altered or removed outside of my control.  And, odds are pretty low that someone will break into your car to steal a paperback book left on your seat.

Also, it seems traditional publishers seem to price their eBooks at or about the same price as a paperback.  So, if a paperback is $9.99 and the eBook is $9.99, I am probably going to get the paperback.  Now, if the paperback is $9.99 and the eBook is $3.99, I would probably go with the eBook.  Now, if you can buy the paperback and get the eBook for free, obviously I'm likely getting both.

With indies, since we have to use POD for paperbacks, our paperbacks tend to be priced quite a bit higher than eBooks.  So, if you sell far more eBooks than paperbacks, it may be a pricing issue more so than a preference issue.  I prefer paperbacks but when you need to maintain a budget, you have to go with what's less expensive, especially if there is a big difference in price as is typically the case when looking at indie works.

[LilyBLily]

In statistics class in grad school, the ideal random sample was 1200 people, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3%. I've been dismayed over the years to hear of political polls that only sampled 300 people; the margin of error in such a small sample is too large for the poll to be meaningful unless it is not a random sample at all. That is, unless the sample was narrowed down before the questions were asked.

To me, 29k people responding to a poll is a very good sample for sheer volume, but as others have noted, the sampling protocol and the questions are key to the validity of the answers. It is well known, for instance, that the average American reads less than one book a year. So, who are all these people who say they prefer print books? Are they readers? And if a household has only one print book, it's probably the Bible, and obviously that's not a particularly useful stat.

A poll of dedicated genre readers would be more helpful, because genre readers tend to be voracious and not satisfied with the few genre books that make it into library collections quickly. Ask them if they buy brand new paperbacks or hardcovers or if they only read ebooks. Similarly, an informal poll of secondhand bookstore owners about what indie-published books show up in their stores would be interesting. I was at one recently and found one or two indie titles. The rest were all trad pub. That tells me that indie print has not penetrated the market significantly except as "keepers"--essentially, books people buy as souvenirs of a great reading experience and keep instead of trading them in for something new to read. That's anecdotal only, of course.

So funny that the poll asked if people organized their books by color coding.   

[Bill Hiatt]

Ebooks can be better if one has run out of space for paper books. They also have an edge in searching for research purposes--even the best indexed paper books aren't as easy to find things in as a typical ebook.

I would generally prefer paper for pleasure reading if I had the space--which I don't. Every nook and cranny that could hold a book already does.

The budget issue would be a factor for many people. It's certainly true that trads price print books closer to (or in some cases higher than) ebooks, and that could influence some buyers. But the readers who most love paper--people who refer to reading a paper book as a sensual experience--also tend to be less interested in indie authors. At least in my experience, they read a great deal but are still laboring under old biases about the quality of indie work. They prefer paper because they read mostly trad authors, where there is often little or no savings on ebooks, but they also prefer the format for other reasons, nostalgia among them.

[Post-Crisis D]

I would generally prefer paper for pleasure reading if I had the space--which I don't. Every nook and cranny that could hold a book already does.

Do you have a dishwasher?  If so, use it for storage instead.  Using it as a spare cupboard clears cupboard space which makes room for moving more books, possibly cookbooks or other food-related books, into the kitchen, freeing up space on the bookshelf for more books.

Also, if you have stairs, you may be able to put drawers under each step which allows for additional storage.

You can also raise your bed to make room for more under-the-bed storage.

If you have closets, the WEF says you only need a couple shirts and pants, so you can get rid of the rest which clears more space for books.

In the bathroom, get an over-the-toilet sink which uses the water you washed your hands with to fill the tank.  Saves on water and takes less space, freeing more space for books.

Do you have a garage?  Get a car cover and park the car outside.  Convert the garage into a library.

There are tons of ways to make space for more books. 

[Jeff Tanyard]

Or you could just have a separate library from the house.  You can get a shed from Home Depot for two or three thousand bucks.  Some of them have windows, too, so you could read in your library shed if you wanted to.

[elleoco]

I probably only have a hundred or so paper books any more. That's because I cleaned out all but the fiction favorites I reread every so often and non-fiction reference books a few years ago. That took me from a house inundated with books everywhere to only what fit in my couple remaining bookcases. I'm a very senior citizen and at the point where if I can't get it as an ebook I just don't read it, which means I'll getting around to tossing all the old favorites that are paperbacks soon because I'll never reread them in that format, and a lot of them I now have as ebooks. For instance, most of the Dick Francis books have been on sale for only a few dollars at one time or another, and I grab them whenever I see that.

From what I see in reader forums, there are still readers of all stripes. Some like me, some still want paper, and an increasing number want audio books, which is too bad for me because I can't imagine ever paying what it would cost to put my books in audio, and since my own hearing is crummy, I even more can't imagine trying to pick narrators, etc. Nothing's convinced me it would be worth it.

[Bill Hiatt]

Sadly, the garage can't be converted--too much other stuff in there. (I no longer have a car, but it's long been storage.)

I did make a room out of the patio adjacent to the garage. That's actually where the majority of the books live right now, and if I cleared junk out of the center of the floor, I could conceivably put in more bookcases. However, if I can get ebook versions of particular titles, that's probably less effort. I'd been under so much stress prior to retirement that even now, several years later, I still find myself enjoying the extra freedom--enough so that large cleanout jobs get done very slowly (like a few minutes a day) if at all.

[Hopscotch]

As an ebookreadaphobe, converting bookshelves into a cold-hearted list on my Kindle wouldn't help. So I tried that Swedish (pre)death-cleaning thing. Gave away 90% of my book hoard and a lot of other stuff around the house. Now I live light and lean. And feel like I gave away 1,000 best friends.

[elleoco]

And feel like I gave away 1,000 best friends.

It's interesting how different we all are. I feel like I got rid of a thousand or more clutter items I hated dusting anyway.

[TimothyEllis]

And feel like I gave away 1,000 best friends.

It's interesting how different we all are. I feel like I got rid of a thousand or more clutter items I hated dusting anyway.

I had to sell most of mine at one point because I needed the money.

The ones I kept were the ones I read regularly.

But now all of those, with some exceptions, are now on my Kindle.

But very few of what I sold that time got replaced with digital versions later.

[Post-Crisis D]

And feel like I gave away 1,000 best friends.

It's interesting how different we all are. I feel like I got rid of a thousand or more clutter items I hated dusting anyway.

I have books that were water-damaged many years ago.  That still irks me.  One I went a bit crazy trying to buy a replacement for.  I think I have six copies now and not one of them is the same edition as my original.  Plus, also, none of them are my original.

And I still have the water-damaged copies which are probably beyond restoration at this point.  If I had had a freeze-drier at the time I found them, when they were still wet, there was probably a chance of a reasonable recovery.  But, by now they are probably too far gone.  Yet, I still have them until I get replacements.

Also, way back when I had a comic book and the last page had a form you fill out to get some free swag from NBC.  I tore out the page and sent in the form.  And, you know what?  I never got the free swag.  Also, I have a damaged comic book.  Also, the page torn out is the last page so I have a damaged comic book with no ending.

[LilyBLily]

For the visually impaired, ebooks are the bomb. Also, totally searchable. The public library has a reading machine, but who would actually read an entire book with it? It's probably useful only for people doing research who need to read a page or two here or there.

I just bought a library membership in another state--a wealthy state--so I can read the ebooks that library system can afford and my own can't. I could go borrow their print books easily enough, plus they say they have abolished fines. But I have adapted to my Kindle and I also have developed a certain disdain for the smoothed edges of trad pub books. Currently, my favorite authors, the ones who excite me when they have a release, are all indies.

[RiverRun]

 

And feel like I gave away 1,000 best friends.

It's interesting how different we all are. I feel like I got rid of a thousand or more clutter items I hated dusting anyway.

I have books that were water-damaged many years ago.  That still irks me.  One I went a bit crazy trying to buy a replacement for.  I think I have six copies now and not one of them is the same edition as my original.  Plus, also, none of them are my original.

And I still have the water-damaged copies which are probably beyond restoration at this point.  If I had had a freeze-drier at the time I found them, when they were still wet, there was probably a chance of a reasonable recovery.  But, by now they are probably too far gone.  Yet, I still have them until I get replacements.

Also, way back when I had a comic book and the last page had a form you fill out to get some free swag from NBC.  I tore out the page and sent in the form.  And, you know what?  I never got the free swag.  Also, I have a damaged comic book.  Also, the page torn out is the last page so I have a damaged comic book with no ending.

The tiny little town I grew up in has had a tiny bookstore for ages. While digging around once in my college days I found a box of free books in the back. One had obviously been damaged by water but was still readable. It was called The Chess Garden. I enjoyed the book and still have it.  The opening chapters begin with a flood. The irony didn't strike me until some time after I'd read the book.

During the pandemic I began to miss the library enough that I started reading books on my tablet. I think I read about three. When the library opened up I stopped using it. Its just not an experience I like very much.

I met someone once who thought her one shelf of books was 'a lot of books'.

We have books in every room. And every closet. 

[Post-Crisis D]

I stopped using the local library in the late 80s or early 90s.

They used to have a card catalog and then they added a computer system.  You could use either.  The computer system was a pain.  You'd find a book and then discover it was at another branch.  You could "order" it and get it the next day but, most of the time, I was at the library for a school project.  You needed the info NOW not tomorrow.

As I recall, there was not an option to search for books only in stock at the branch you were in.  Also, there was no keyboard.  Everything was touchscreen with menus.  And the system was sloooooow.

The card catalog was faster and only cataloged books that were actually at the branch.

The last time I went there, they had gotten rid of the card catalog but hadn't updated the computer system.  At that point, it was faster to find books by going up and down the aisles.

After that, I never went back.  If I wanted a book, I bought it.  And then I got mail order catalogs for books.  One had a section with books for $1.  Hardcover books for $1.  And bargain books.

Now I have bookshelves with two rows of books.  That is, there is a row of books behind another row of books.  Well, technically, they aren't bookshelves but they hold books and they hold two rows of books.  So, you do big books in the back and shorter books up front.  And sometimes books take less space stacked rather than lined up.

Also, I think I have proper bookshelves that manage to hold two rows of books per shelf too.

Also, I generally organize by subject matter.

I used to challenge my neighbors to pick a topic and I'd probably have a book for it.  I think most of the time I did.  And that was thirty years ago.

[elleoco]

Fifty years ago, when I first moved to this county, the library was in a one-room building, and I was sure (and still am) that I had more books in my house than they had in that library. Nowadays, of course, after several moves it's a modern large library with lots of books, audio and video stuff. It's also always busy, no sign of lack of support from the populace. Including me. I rarely go there, but I can and do sit at home, access the ebook catalog and borrow books that go right to my Kindle. Occasionally I'm stuck dealing with Hoopla. If I want a book badly enough I'll do that. And if I want a book really badly that's only available in paper, I'll do that sometimes, but not often. Worst case I have to put a hold on the book and wait a while.

So the library allows me to get overpriced traditionally published books without paying more than the taxes that support it and would still do so if I didn't avail myself of its services.

[Jeff Tanyard]

After my previous post about making a library shed, I couldn't get the idea out of my head.  I did some googling, and it turns out some folks have made some pretty cool library sheds.

Here's a link showcasing a few:

https://wrotetrips.wordpress.com/2017/02/17/garden-library-sheds/

[Hopscotch]

Feel sick that I haven't a cool library shed - but how could you resist filling your house w/books and moving yourself and toothbrush into the shed?

[Post-Crisis D]

My local library, the one I haven't gone to in years, was actually closed several years ago after they built a new library which was more centrally located.  Well, the new central location is actually farther from my house now than the library in the neighboring town.   

But, anyway, the new library is apparently not just books but multimedia and DVDs and games and all that.  And, reportedly, the primary customers are people looking for free porn.

And that reminds me off an article I read several years ago, where someone was writing about how libraries had become loud and annoying because they were becoming less focused on books and more on multimedia.  Libraries weren't quiet anymore.  But, the author had found a place that focused on books and had quiet areas where you could sit down and read.  Some even served coffee.  If I recall, it was a Barnes & Noble bookstore.

[Bill Hiatt]

Looking at Jeff's link, I have to say that my patio converted to a room is kind of the same thing, though not as elegant as some of those "sheds". Mine was designed to match the plain white garage to which it is attached, and it doesn't have furniture inside other than bookcases. Still, it meets my needs.

Doubtless, my heirs will curse me at some point, though I've already told them they can deal with the books as bonfire fuel if they want once I'm gone. Like Hopscotch, I think of them as friends and can't quite bear to part with them.

Since I used to visit every used bookstore I was close to (in regular life or on vacation), a significant part of my collection is material that has never been and will may never be converted to ebooks. I'd like to find a good home for them when I'm gone, but realistically, that probably won't happen.

[LilyBLily]

Another used bookstore.

Many of my books are from those stores, which contained treasure troves of books that had limited distribution or old editions, and more. They were my favorite places to visit in every new town, along with the local public libraries.

Yes, old books are old friends. I don't know that I want to make the final parting even more difficult by adding new books to my collection.

[Bill Hiatt]

The problem with getting my "old friends" adopted is that the most logical choice (donation to libraries) isn't really an option. You know, restricted self-space, limited librarian time to vet potentially unfamiliar titles, etc. They might look at a small number of items, but they are unlikely to look at the 7-8 thousand or so that I have.

What few used book stores are left have essentially the same problem. They might take a few things that are in high demand, but they aren't necessarily going to want obscure stuff only of interest to a few potential buyers. Many of the out-of-print gems would be of interest to someone, but it's hard to find that someone.

[Hopscotch]

Sounds as tho' you ought to build your bookshed in the front (not back) yard, stuff it w/those 7K books and put up a sign reading "come and take"?

[Bill Hiatt]

I'm not really trying to get rid of them before I die. Perhaps after that, I will haunt libraries with extra space and leave behind books.

Actually, I just did a quick search and discovered lots of options I didn't know existed, so my heirs may have an easier time than I thought. At least in my area (Los Angeles County) there are a number of organizations that will pick up book donations for free. One of them appears to service schools and libraries without the financial resources to have all the books they'd like. One of the testimonials also mentions that the organization picked up forty boxes. I have more than that, but they could make more than one trip.

Of course, I'm not exactly at death's door now, so who knows what will be available when I die, but the likelihood is that something similar will exist.

I don't exactly have the Shakespeare First Folio or a Guttenberg Bible, but I do have at least a few titles that some charity could probably sell for fundraising purposes. For instance, I once picked up Geoffrey Bullough's Narrative and Dramatic Sources for Shakespeare (all but one volume) for $50. They now appear to be selling for $350 per volume. I've also got some art books that would fetch a decent price if they weren't picked up for a library collection.

I've known for a long time that libraries use book sales as periodic fundraisers.

[Hopscotch]

Umm, somewhere in that vast 7K you wouldn't happen to have a Ben Hur, 1860, Third Edition with the duplicated line on page one-sixteen?

[LilyBLily]

I adore books. I love libraries. Every life has its seasons. Right now, I still own many books, but that's going to change sooner or later. 

[Bill Hiatt]

Umm, somewhere in that vast 7K you wouldn't happen to have a Ben Hur, 1860, Third Edition with the duplicated line on page one-sixteen?

Sadly, no.

The oldest book I have (in terms of print date) is an 1868 campaign biography of Horatio Seymour, who lost the presidency to Grant that year. Only a political historian is likely to be interested.