Digital books are way, way harder to maintain.
According to The Internet Archive’s Brewster Kahle,keeping eBooks readabletakes way more work than you might expect.
And that’s for a professional library.
Rey Seven / Unsplash
For individuals, it’s even worse.
“Our paper books have lasted hundreds of years on our shelves and are still readable.
Without active maintenance, we will be lucky if our digital books last a decade.”
Susan Q Yin / Unsplash
And that’s with static files.
“The issue is that there usually aren’t considerations in copyright agreements that allow for good archival practices.
“Physical media can often be a better choice for long-term storage because of these issues.
Text-based material, in particular, can still be stored effectively on paper.”
It might be swollen and ugly, but functionally it is still 100 percent.
Digital storage isn’t nearly so resilient, requiring several redundant backups.
For most of us, these “backups” are left to the seller.
In 2009,Amazon famously pulled copiesof George Orwell’s1984from people’s Kindles.
And neither do you own them.
You cannot sell it to a used bookstore nor buy used eBooks.
So maybe digital books arent all that bad.
