One point to add... My day job is a chemist working in the paper industry. It is a fact that the industry is hurting badly and a big part of that is the electronic file. Take it for what its worth but a lot of people have lost their jobs. I still prefer to lay back in bed on cold winter nights with a book instead of sitting at the computer shivering. Hey! I've lost 180 pounds. I'm cold even when its 90 degrees outside.

Ebooks hurt my eyes, its just to hard to read...

I prefer the E-Book. Search feature, cost, durability, and if I want to print a page or so it can be done. Portibility with a PDA is nice too. Reading from the screen has not been a problem so far.

E-books are definitely more convenient in the sense that it can be downloaded instantly. Cost wise I think it's also of a lower price. However,I feel that if it is released in both mediums, I definitely would choose books over ebooks. Books, you can collect it, put in shelves, but ebooks, only can be seen in the computer, lacks the special touch that books has got to offer.

Well, but if you're just a magician that wants to get that particular trick down, learn that trick, master it, do not care about the books, and would sell them as soon as u've mastered it, ebooks work fine for you.

But, I rather pay that few bucks more and get the book. Read it. Master it. Keep the book. Exhibit it. =p

But if I really want desperately to learn a particular trick, ebooks works fine.

Yup.

D.

I like books more, but I don't have any e-books to make a comparison. I'll have to get one or two and see how I like them.

As Denny Haney would tell anyone: "Books Books Books" You get more out of books than you will anything else. You can twist and mix up concepts to form 'new ideas'- ideas that you'll be proud of; because YOU came up with them. Vice Versa: you're watching a DVD visual clip- you then are prone to think that's the only way the technique is to be done. There's no room for growth or 'tweaking.'

Buy books- not e-books. Keep the fading REAL magic shops alive, and don't settle for online sources of info- except the MagicCafe forums! Grow a library- not CD disks. They look a heck of a lot nicer on a shelf. You don't need many, but if your like me- you get a lot. Because knowledge truly is power. It's also good to have the source readily available to you whenever you need it. With e-books; heck you have to pray that the file isn't corrupt.

And if you have a dial up internet access: Waiting 48 hours for a 50 mega-byte file to download; to me isn't my ideal idea of a way of consuming valuable magical knowledge. I could take a day trip to Baltimore and visit the REAL magic shop, learn a few spoken lessons, and buy a book...

Words to ponder. Buy books. Learn.

Matt Tomasko

I will only get an ebook after I have purchased the paper book. It doesn't look that professional to have a bunch of magic books at my desk at work. Thus I keep a few ebooks on my work comp. Then I can read the pdf whenever I want. Otherwise, when practicing or studying at home, I use the paper!!

what next? E-cards? E-coins? E-rope? E-linking rings?

Ok here is my argument for this. What about the magicians that release a lot of their work on ebook. Like Lee Asher has about 3 that are only available on Ebook. R Paul Wilson only offers one real book on his site the rest are all Ebooks. Are you saying that we shouldnt buy their works since its not in actual paper book form? Like I have said on here before. I have tons of real books, I also have a lot of Ebooks. I spend most my time behind a computer at work and at home doing webpage design. So ebooks are just handy for me, I have a Laptop that sits next to my bed as well. I have found my ebooks as a great investment. There really isn't a lot of Ebooks out there any ways if you think about it. Lybray.com probally has the largest collection and I own most those already. Just waiting for Card College 2 to come out on Ebook now.

Corey,

Good arguement. I do also know many great performers that have some of their works on e-books. Al Schnieder has some great theories and presentations on an e-book format. Lee Asher as you had mentioned does as well.

Perhaps it's because I grew up with magic books, books- not CDs. I don't really know why I prefer the hardbound copies more than the disks. I suppose it's a matter of choice. I personally am a hound for knowledge. I collect any set of books that I can. I have a vast aray of them. An entire room is filled with bookshelves. All of which I've read. Lecture notes, magazines- I just admire them from an artistic level perhaps. I guess you could call me a collector of art- art being the books themselves.

Some may believe that having too many books isn't good. That one magician only needs a few like 'Showmanship for Magicians' or 'Card College' volumes- some feel that those are all that's needed for a lifetime. Of which I agree also with. But I'm a full time performer who also likes documentation of magic by means of books. If reading and learning were a possible second occupation- I'd be in that line of work. I suppose one day I'll look into e-books. Considering them a new source of magical information. I just haven't gotten to that point.

Matt Tomasko

I just love the smell of paper!!! and books have this certain "magic" to it! have admit though that searching in an ebook is way easier.!

I prefer e-books first. I like to download my magic e-books to my laptop and I can read them even in bed or in the kitchen. Electronic media is suppose to save trees and save on production cost. The beauty of the e-books is that you can print the pages you want or the entire book. What ever happen to the paperless home office?

I come down solidly in the middle on the ebook versus paper. First nothing will ever in my opinion replace the dignity of print on quality paper. For reading the resolution of paper in print is beyond compare. The slant of the monitor for example will cut down speed and comprehension. The lower resolution of monitors vs print. The big advantage is technically an ebook should never go out of print. The real adavantage is when text is organized in a way that print cannot match. Embedded video, speech to text, search capabilities and massive archival abilities are unique to the medium. However very few ebooks take advantage of these capabilities making them in my opinion second rate versions of printed books. Added to this that most ebooks are priced comparable to printed books they don't fit my catagory of bargains. For small independent and niche publishers they make production of books possible due to lower inventory and printing costs. Although a really well produced ebook should take as much editorial and production skills as a book. You just don't run the presses. I suspect for magic books which are definitely a niche you'll see ebooks expand. Lybrary.com is a very good example of this publishing using many of these capabilities. For myself I'd shell out for a Dover reprint, they are cheap and printed and I can read them without a computer.