>>25246810
Yes. Most books should not be bought in physical form. Your indie fantasyslop is a waste of money, trees, and shelf space. Only buy books that retain their intellectual value, that someone else will want some day.

>>25246810
If you don't read physical you are a zoomer who doesn't retain anything he reads. Hope that helps.

I only download books to my Kobo if they're under 300 pages, because they're formatted to roughly 500. Anything more, I buy a mass market copy if available. My price range for physical copies is $8–15. I never buy used — I don't want AIDs.

>>25246810
>Is it ok to read downloaded books from the internet?
Yes

I mostly just go to Internet archive for that, don’t even download em sometimes.

>>25246810
>do you believe in intellectual property rights
No. They exist to “protect” the creator and as we’ve seen with the AI sloppa sucking up every pirated copy of everything and nobody being indicted, these laws actually just exist to fuck non millionaires. Therefore the law is unjust. Therefore I don’t give a fuck about it.
>won’t somebody think of the starving artist
Most of what anyone reads here has no living artist in the first place. Furthermore nothing makes you pirate everything. Send a direct cheque to your indie artist and they’ll make more from it than your Bezos-purchase.

1. Linear vs. Non-Linear Processing

When you read a physical book, your brain constructs a mental map of the information. You remember that a specific fact was "at the bottom of the left-hand page near the coffee stain." This spatial anchoring helps with memory retrieval.

On a screen, scrolling is non-linear. The text is a continuous, unstable stream. This lack of physical landmarks makes it harder for the brain to map the information, often leading to "fragmented" understanding.

2. The "Scanning" Reflex

The digital environment (emails, social media, news) has trained our brains to skim and scan for keywords rather than engage in "deep reading."

On screens: We tend to use an "F-shaped" pattern, looking for the main point and skipping the nuances.

On paper: The brain more easily enters a state of deep focus, allowing for the processing of complex metaphors or intricate logical arguments.

3. Cognitive Load and Exhaustion

Reading digitally often imposes a higher cognitive load due to several factors:

Visual Fatigue: Backlit displays and the "flicker" of some screens can cause eye strain faster than reflected light on paper.

Metacognition: Research suggests people tend to be overconfident when reading on screens, moving through the text faster and spending less time "self-testing" their understanding compared to when they read print.

4. Navigational Tax

On a screen, your brain has to dedicate a small portion of its "processing power" to navigating—scrolling, clicking, or avoiding pop-ups. While this seems minor, it subtracts from the total energy available for encoding the information into long-term memory.

The Verdict: Screens are excellent for quick information gathering and searching for specific facts. However, for deep comprehension and long-term retention of complex material, the brain generally performs better with the tactile, stable environment of paper.

Ever heard of the public library?

>>25246875
>Research suggests
Which ones, Mr. AI?

>>25246810
I hereby give you permission to do so.

>>25246904
1. The Meta-Analyses (Big Picture Data)

To get a reliable answer, researchers look at dozens of studies at once. Two of the most cited are:

Delgado et al. (2018): Published in Educational Research Review, this meta-analysis looked at 54 studies (covering over 170,000 participants). It found a consistent "paper-based reading advantage," particularly when readers were under a time crunch or reading informational (rather than narrative) texts.

Clinton (2019): Published in the Journal of Research in Reading, this analysis of 33 studies confirmed that reading from screens resulted in lower comprehension scores for expository texts compared to paper.

2. Maryanne Wolf (The "Reading Brain" Expert)

A leading neuroscientist and author of Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World. Her research focuses on neuroplasticity.

The Finding: She argues that the "deep reading circuit" in our brains is not innate—it must be trained. Because we use screens for quick, multi-tasking behaviors, our brains are literally re-wiring themselves for "skimming" (the shallowing hypothesis), which makes it physically harder for us to process complex, long-form ideas even when we try to focus.

3. Anne Mangen (Tactile and Spatial Memory)

A professor at the University of Stavanger who has conducted famous experiments comparing Kindle/PDF reading vs. paper.

The Finding: Mangen’s work highlights the haptic (touch) component. In her studies, students who read a mystery story on paper were significantly better at reconstructing the plot's chronology than those who read it on a Kindle. She posits that the lack of "spatial stability" on a screen—the fact that text disappears as you scroll—weakens the brain’s ability to map information.

4. Ackerman & Goldsmith (Metacognition)

Their research often looks at how we think about our own learning.

The Finding: They discovered that people are often overconfident on screens. In their studies, participants reading on screens predicted they would do better on tests than they actually did. Because scrolling feels "fast" and "easy," the brain tricks itself into thinking it has mastered the material when it has only skimmed it.

>>25246810
>Is it ok to read downloaded books from the internet?
A thousand times yes.
The Internet is the greatest tool for the democratization of knowledge since the printing press. You have a moral obligation to use it and drive ignorance away.

>>25246818
This. Physical book is essentially an archivation medium.

Where is the best place to dl books?

>>25246818
What if its philosophy, theology and sociology?

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>>25246875
>staining books
>using social media
>"research suggests"
kill yourself

>>25246810
With an e reader using dark mode yeah why not?

i just need physical books. i just can't focus as well with digital and e readers