Owning a book is like running a node. It grants you unmediated, private access to the contents of that book in perpetuity. Kindle is a shitcoin.
Discussion
Why I'll always buy physical copy
Don’t sleep on epub though. Being able to highlight text and export notes into Obsidian is a great way to build your own little web of knowledge.
so is a bookshelf, a 500 sat highlighter pen, and a good memory
I understand the sentiment but unlimited storage for the ol brain is a decent upgrade.
I am an avid obsidian user and can identify with this use case. I use 4x6 index cards as bookmarks, and I write my notes on those. Then when I'm done I transcribe them.
epub can absolutely be held in a sovereign way. I just happen to have problems retaining information read from ebooks. there's something about the physical instantiation of the book that helps my brain index into it. When I recall something, a passage or whatever, I usually have a sense for physically where it was located in the book. That is, left or right side of the fold, towards the front, middle, or back of the book. upper middle or lower part of the page.
Ok, that I totally understand. When I listen to podcasts while riding I recall information based on the visual information where I was when I heard it. It’s an interesting multimodal index but it works.