Welcome to our virtual third place, The Café.
Come on in and make a new human connection over a cup of coffee (or Teh Tarik). This is a casual community, do whatever you want, share your oyen pics, your frustrations, and even organize a weekend picnic with the community. The world is your oyster.
Rules are simple, be kind and civil with each other. As with any other café, rude patrons will be kicked out.
I’ve been fully into ebooks for about 10 years too. Paper books have mostly lost their appeal for me since they can’t beat the convenience of having my whole library with me all the time.
My wife, though, LOVES bookstores and buying paper books even though she reads lots of ebooks, though many of the paper books she bought are left untouched on the bookshelf lol. It’s more for the sentimental value of owning the physical copy.
I used to sit in a bookstore and just watch the vibe around me. And discovering new books was a fun hobby. I do miss bookstores - so many of them have closed and the nicest one is Kinokuniya which is like so far away. I also miss being in libraries - when I lived in Oz that was what I did to just relax. Go to libraries and browse. Man our libraries here are so useless and far away. But my library is now Scribd - listen to audio books from it, and I read most of my nonfic ik book format and buy second hand books or borrow them from shops. My favourite one is this one cos I love my pulpy romance novels, and she sells second hand books of various genres too. (She has a physical store) https://www.leabooks.com.my/
My reading now is also almost entirely on my iPad (mini ftw), because the books I read have always been harder to find in local bookstores so it has always been easier for me to get my books in digital copies. Haven't been to a bookstore in quite some time as well.
But bookstores will always have a special place in my heart - I'm quite sentimental about reading hardcopy books - just browsing in a bookstore, and the excitement in discovering something interesting to read, that's quite a joyful experience. (I mean, scrolling through webpages on the internet for something to read is just not quite that, haha!) And to reminisce how in my college days I and my sister would just hang around in MPH (rip) at Mid Valley, while our friends went for a movie or shopping - that was such a great time.
(Also, the stationery section of the bookstores - I just can't resist looking at and playing with the pretty things, then picking something to bring home, hahaha!)
But yeah probably will be sticking to ebooks at the moment - the main reason above aside, it's just so convenient. And I do feel like I read more and faster on the iPad. Perhaps one day I shall visit a bookstore, find a gem, and again immerse myself in a delightful experience of reading a physical book.
I still love bookstores and physical books. I don't like the hassle of storing all the stuff though so I buy way less physical books nowadays. Reading ebooks is actually not so convenient for me either however, since I don't have a tablet and have to read on my pc or my phone. I'd like to buy a tablet someday.
I mainly browse bookstores to look for picks, since I don't really look for books online(unless I stumble into comments that recommend books).