eBook thoughts

I’ve become a convert to the whole ebook thing recently, but only in a limited capacity.

I still like having a paper book for most things I read like history and fiction. The real value comes from replacing all those technical books that you buy, like Java EE in 5 days.

There is a small subset of all the technical books I have that I really want a paper copy of. Stuff like my Operating System books that you cannot get anymore or are nice to have sitting on the bookshelf. But in general technical books date so quickly that if you’re looking at something more that a year and a half old it’s pretty much useless. The same goes for buying new book, I’ve started asking myself the question Am I going to read this in the next 6 months? if the answer is no then I don’t get the book. The only value in buying a technical book lies in actually learning the content of it, not in decorating your bookshelf.

Looking at my current bookshelf, there is probably half or more books that are severly outdated and aren’t any use in their current form. I’m currently in the process of thinning out their numbers.

What I’m planning on doing in the future is grabbing an eBook reader (and using my MBP) and keeping all my technical books there. Basically treating technical books more like magazines or newspapers, not that I really buy either of those anymore.