Assimil phasing out physical books?

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Re: Assimil phasing out physical books?

Postby PeterMollenburg » Sat Mar 25, 2023 9:40 pm

rdearman wrote:
Ccaesar wrote:Sadly, it's a tendency based on a lot of bias.

Not a lot of bias, just a single bias. Electrons are cheaper than wood pulp.


So give the consumer the choice, then. Pay more if you want dead tree format. I would, provided it wasn't astronomically more expensive. There's a job for the future - printing and binding paper versions of books only sold in digital format! I could rip people off... astronomically!

Edit: I could even use the excuse of environmental impact and add a 'tax' :lol: ripping people off more. They'd be happy to pay because I'll blame them for the environmental impact and push the impending doom through all forms of media to scare people into paying this tax on everything... ha ha ha ha haaaaaaa! :lol:
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Re: Assimil phasing out physical books?

Postby tractor » Sat Mar 25, 2023 11:20 pm

I like reading on my e-reader (a Kobo), and I prefer electronic dictionaries and encyclopedia, but when it comes to language learning books, I prefer the good old paper format. Since I really like Assimil courses, I too am a bit worried about them dropping paper books.
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Re: Assimil phasing out physical books?

Postby tastyonions » Sat Mar 25, 2023 11:39 pm

I also prefer paper. I'm a computer programmer, I spend quite enough time every day looking at screens, thanks.
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Re: Assimil phasing out physical books?

Postby Sizen » Sat Mar 25, 2023 11:59 pm

I work in a public library and I take out ebooks on my tablet because I just find it easier and more convenient despite the oftentimes higher cost for my library. If ever I forget to bring my iPad to work, I can still pick up where I left off on my phone and whenever I finish my book, I don't have to make an extra trip or wait until my next workday to start my next read. I looooooove ebooks. But that's borrowing books.

If I'm buying it, I like to actually own the book and be sure that in 5 to 10 years, I'll still have access to it. If they were selling DRM free or even watermarked PDFs, I'd be down. That's why I like https://www.leslibraires.ca/ for French ebooks, because they often offer exactly that. When I recently bought Assimil le coréen, I did consider the e-méthode, but opted for the print copy in the end. I'd rather have a PDF, the audio and my handwritten notes all on my tablet, but I don't like idea of one day losing access to the course I bought (if Assimil went under and their servers were no longer running or because the app is no longer supported by my newer device, for example), not being able to lend it to a friend, or not being able to resell it if one day I choose to part ways with it. I understand their desire to protect themselves from piracy, but a lot of their texts and audio can already be found quite easily online anyways and I don't know if the app makes it any harder for the pirates out there to do their dirty work...

All this to say: I love screen reading, but I don't really approve of the direction Assimil is going in.
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Re: Assimil phasing out physical books?

Postby Tutescrew » Sun Mar 26, 2023 12:27 pm

Tastyonions nailed it for me. Professionally, I am in front of a computer screen perhaps 80% of my workweek. While I do use a PC to play mp3 files, I MUCH prefer to sit down with a paper book either before or after my workday.
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Re: Assimil phasing out physical books?

Postby Le Baron » Sun Mar 26, 2023 2:25 pm

rdearman wrote:
Ccaesar wrote:Sadly, it's a tendency based on a lot of bias.

Not a lot of bias, just a single bias. Electrons are cheaper than wood pulp.

Are they though? Wood is actually a renewable resource. The stuff usually burned to create electricity isn't.
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Re: Assimil phasing out physical books?

Postby Le Baron » Sun Mar 26, 2023 2:42 pm

Ccaesar wrote:However it does make the process of making flashcards directly from your course easier (which does take longer if you have to stare at the physical book when you are typing the text in otherwise)

That latter process is part of what makes me remember the words. When processes like this are automated you have little contact with the words and effort of matching and aligning and finding the meanings. Relying on the supposed total efficacy of the flashcard programme. I'm a great sceptic of this and the tiresome idea that if you can just use technology to relieve the effort, you'll somehow come out of it even better. But we already see that relieving people of the effort of learning how to do things through hands-on effort has made people skill-free and moronic when it comes to things not existing in a technology bubble.

As far as I'm concerned this effort is the key to getting results from this kind of study. The words I've had to determine by pulling down a large dictionary from the shelf, then finding it and sorting through the possible meanings, usages and examples, are the ones that have stuck. Probably because I spent more than 2 seconds on a mouse click or a screen tap to an electronic dictionary, then clicked away and carried on reading. Then counting up this list of supposed 'learned new words'. The latter seems to me a superficial sense of achievement. I can read a TL text on an e-reader with a built-in dictionary in days; with a book (paper or epub); where I have to manually look up the things I don't know time is spent in inquiry. Generally I can't look up every word or problem, but from every book there's a sizeable enough harvest which has been fully internalised to carry through to the next book/podcast/video etc.
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Re: Assimil phasing out physical books?

Postby rdearman » Sun Mar 26, 2023 4:53 pm

Le Baron wrote:
rdearman wrote:
Ccaesar wrote:Sadly, it's a tendency based on a lot of bias.

Not a lot of bias, just a single bias. Electrons are cheaper than wood pulp.

Are they though? Wood is actually a renewable resource. The stuff usually burned to create electricity isn't.

In the UK 30% of electric comes from wind or sunlight. But regardless of the source electricity is cheaper than wood pulp used to make paper.

Edit: also from the publisher point of view you are using electricity that you paid for, not the wood pulp they paid for. So cheaper to them.
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Re: Assimil phasing out physical books?

Postby Le Baron » Sun Mar 26, 2023 5:42 pm

rdearman wrote:
Le Baron wrote:
rdearman wrote:
Ccaesar wrote:Sadly, it's a tendency based on a lot of bias.

Not a lot of bias, just a single bias. Electrons are cheaper than wood pulp.

Are they though? Wood is actually a renewable resource. The stuff usually burned to create electricity isn't.

In the UK 30% of electric comes from wind or sunlight. But regardless of the source electricity is cheaper than wood pulp used to make paper.

Edit: also from the publisher point of view you are using electricity that you paid for, not the wood pulp they paid for. So cheaper to them.

It's more than 30% here (they say). However the wood used for books, especially in Europe, comes from forests full of fast-growing trees deliberately for wood pulp. Mostly in Scandinavia. And if the electricity involved in making this pulp is from wind, well all the better.

What I was really getting at is that the 'it's electronic, therefore better because doesn't use resources' is quite a falsehood and not the full story. In the print-on-demand era (used now for many textbooks) there aren't massive overstocks of printing either.
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Re: Assimil phasing out physical books?

Postby rdearman » Sun Mar 26, 2023 5:47 pm

Le Baron wrote:
rdearman wrote:
Le Baron wrote:
rdearman wrote:
Ccaesar wrote:Sadly, it's a tendency based on a lot of bias.

Not a lot of bias, just a single bias. Electrons are cheaper than wood pulp.

Are they though? Wood is actually a renewable resource. The stuff usually burned to create electricity isn't.

In the UK 30% of electric comes from wind or sunlight. But regardless of the source electricity is cheaper than wood pulp used to make paper.

Edit: also from the publisher point of view you are using electricity that you paid for, not the wood pulp they paid for. So cheaper to them.

It's more than 30% here (they say). However the wood used for books, especially in Europe, comes from forests full of fast-growing trees deliberately for wood pulp. Mostly in Scandinavia. And if the electricity involved in making this pulp is from wind, well all the better.

What I was really getting at is that the 'it's electronic, therefore better because doesn't use resources' is quite a falsehood and not the full story. In the print-on-demand era (used now for many textbooks) there aren't massive overstocks of printing either.

I never claimed it was better, just cheaper for the publisher. :)
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