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I'm the same way. It began when I was an undergraduate: the sight of crowded bookshelves in a professor's office – one actually sagging under its load – flipped the crazy switch in my brain. After I got my first real job, the project of accumulation began. Having a large home library is not without its problems, but it's also a real source of joy. My only regret is not taking the time to learn some basic carpentry skills.

I would hate to do serious research in a world of ebooks – and any sufficiently serious reader becomes a researcher – but for general use, they probably are a good technology for most readers. Defenders of the paper book need to remember that mass reading of paper books is a historically recent phenomenon, for some values of "recent".



Whereas my brain boggles at how big a pain it must have been to do a literature review pre-JSTOR/Web of Science/pdfs in general.

I am a voracious reader (generally 2-5 novels/equivalent per week, depending) and love ebooks. Carry 5 long novels, 3 YA series, 4 non-fiction books, my work literature, and an assortment of my favorite comfort/pickmeup novels/short stories/essays with me constantly and instantly searchable? Yes please.


I suspect that part of the secret to that one is called Librarians.

Well, that and it's likely that when doing a literature review is hard and time consuming, people aren't quite as concerned about it's completeness as well it's easy and quick.




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