[pfunnybook]

I chose to store good stuff in digital format. Not exactly why, but close enough.

My MAIN reason is to preserve rare titles from my childhood. My eyes don't do print so easily these days and I really need ebook format to revisit my favorites. Those books are often quite rare and hard to find now. I got into the whole scanning/OCR/proofreading/ePUB making thing when I went looking to replace a childhood favorite and found that the lowest price online for the title was $75 for a paperback in POOR condition! Naturally, having my own paperback in poor condition, that was rather an EEK, EEK, EEK moment! I had NO IDEA that I couldn't just hop online and find another copy easily and affordably!

To me it's kind of scary to see certain books becoming harder and harder to find in print, one worries that by the time they do finally become public domain, will there be any copies around for someone to scan?

I would say to any rights owners out there who have inherited literary estates, DO SOMETHING about getting the books back out there! I'd rather be able to buy an out-of-print book released as ebook than have to a) track a print copy down and b) go through the considerable work to digitize it. As it turned out, the childhood book I wanted so badly to replace finally was re-released by the author's son in both print and digital and I bought it!

My other reason would be financial, I'm one of those who reads all the time, I get through around 120+ books per year easily. I primarily use my library to do so however, buying ebooks only occasionally. I simply couldn't afford to buy everything I read. I am grateful for the work of those creating lovely ebooks of public domain works! I'm reading one currently, actually!

[tullia10]

Back in the day, when there was just the dear old LIT format around, ebooks in my country (and in my language) didn't exist.
So I taught myself to read (and then write) in english by pirating ebooks.

Now it's just that I wouldn't have the money to buy *all* the books that I read. Plus, as usual, regional restrictions. And I must admit I've become a bit of a hoarder.

Fun fact:
from quite some years now I'm reading fiction exclusively in english. When I tried something translated or written by some local author, it didn't "sound right" in my head and I've found the stories trite and unoriginal.

Financial for me, and I love to be able to share with others. I have never been able to have a waiting list book at the library fulfilled and my friends have experienced the same.

Thanks to everyone who keeps me reading. Its much appreciated.

Along with books I also download comics. Mainly Marvel and DC, I used to collect hard copies back in the day when they averaged 70 pence each. Now they are what, £4 each?
There’s now way I can afford that.

Financial.
Second reason being lack of space to store physical books. Books are subject to environmental elements such as yellowing pages, dust and grease, which would entail regular clean up.
I read mostly romance and comics books, currently I have 4,000+ ebooks (which comprise of epub and cbr format) which all fit in a memory card on my tablet that I can carry everywhere I go; physical storage would require space that I do not have.
Third reason is immediate availability. In my country, I have to wait at least 6 months, or even 1 year for any newly released books to become available in bookshops! And again they cost more than their USDollars / euro equivalent after adding up the cost of transport and all kind of taxes.
Fourth reason is collection. I like to believe that one day I will be able to share all the books that I have enjoyed with my children and transmit my love of books and the passion to acquire knowledge to them.
Finally, I know the reasoning is a bit skewed, but piracy is not illegal as long as I'm not trying to sell the book to others and benefit myself from the proceeds.

[Tellen901]

Financial — I can’t afford all the books I want to read! But I want to read everything in the world! This year I’m down nearly 100 books. Next year I want to do 200. LOL never gonna happen but I want to try.

Mostly financial. Plus I hate the fact that an ebook costs as much as the hardcover in most cases. If I'm going to pay that much for a book, I want something more to show for it other than a digital file.

I pirate ebooks because of several different reasons: the book costs more than my pocket can manage; to test whether I'd be wasting my money; but the most common reason for me is that the title is not available for purchase in my country, which annoys me to no end, because what's the reason why?

Mostly financial. Plus I hate the fact that an ebook costs as much as the hardcover in most cases. If I'm going to pay that much for a book, I want something more to show for it other than a digital file.

Agreed, it’s ridiculous that a ebook costs as much as a hardback.
The hardback I don’t mind paying for when I can afford it, but there’s no way I’m paying equal amounts of cash for a digital file.

[FlyingSquirrel18]

A specious argument at best. When you buy a hardcover book, you're paying for the author's ideas, not the physical covers and pages. Thus the cost of an ebook should be nearly the same as the physical book, since it contains the same intellectual property. Admit it, everybody, we're stealing!

[foxrampant]

A specious argument at best. When you buy a hardcover book, you're paying for the author's ideas, not the physical covers and pages. Thus the cost of an ebook should be nearly the same as the physical book, since it contains the same intellectual property.

Er... well, no. When you buy a hardcover book (or a paperback, for that matter), you are paying maybe 20% for the text itself, perhaps not even that. The rest is the cost of production of an actual physical book: paper, typesetting, printing, binding, artist's charges for the cover art, designer's charges for the layout, logistics, yadda yadda yadda. Producing an e-book is nowhere near as expensive, and so it stands to reason that the finished product should be perceptibly cheaper.

For me, financial. Since "buying" an ebook is not really buying at all, I refuse to pay the same sum for the ebook version as for the physical book.

From an ebook purchase I just don't get the same as from the purchase of a paper book because I can not lend or give it to someone else, donate it to my local library, resell it at the flea market etc. In the end it's just a reading license and that doesn't warrant the high price.

Secondly, I am a fantasy fan and like to try a whole ton of different authors and books before committing my time to reading something. I download a lot, give it a try and select only a faction of these for later reading. It has the advantage that I have found some rather unknown gems of the genre.
Here I would prefer if I could donate to the author AFTER reading the book when I am satisfied with the reading experience.

[mandismuses]

I don't. I utilize free books on Amazon, giveaways by authors, used paperbacks and hardcovers when I can. I used to pirate before I knew the toll it took and that it hurt the very authors I was trying to support. Once I realized that it wasn't a "victimless" crime after I grew up a bit, I stopped. I now support those that produce the art I enjoy, as I want them to continue producing that art.

I don't have space or money to buy all the books I read, and while I probably could find a way to afford the ebooks, I just don't like the idea for paying almost the same price to a digital copy. If I'm going to buy a book, I'll buy the physical copy - usually after I've read the ebook and decided I need a copy of that particular book.

I bought lots of books in the past that I either rated 1 star or did not finish. I feel bad for having to pay for a book that was bad. I know pirating is bad, but having to see a bad book in my shelf is the worst.