There's a publisher in Chicago resurrecting such books too, Fifth Star. Just startring Diversey, a forgotten '30s novel.

http://www.fifthstarpress.org/catalog/

Um, I realize anecdote is not data, but I'm one of those people who resisted eBooks and only started trying them when someone gave me a kindle as a gift. I have been spelunking for old classic literature...not so much forgotten and out of print (yet), but at least catching up on my core classics...Middlemarch, Anna Karenina, etc.

I'm experiencing a transition in my reading habits, and this post helped me think through that a bit.

A large part of the experience of media consumption (reading, TV, movies, plays, etc.) is the ability to share that experience with others. To dissect and to reference, to think it through and have somebody to echo back or to challenge your ideas.

I've spent a large amount of time reading books that nobody else is reading. A lot of that is philosophy. Some history, and a lot of classic novels.

The result is that I've developed what I think are interesting and nuanced ideas about the world we live in, but without many people with whom I'm able to talk to about it.

Which brings me to the oft-maligned TV programming. Something interesting has happened to TV in the past 15 years: the writing on certain shows has become phenomenal. There's nuance and wit and literature.

And, what's more? Many of the best shows have sizable audiences. So, when I invest hours watching and thinking about characters and stories contained in them, I have the added benefit of being able to discuss them in general company.

TV is the new high brow.

Read McTeague last year and loved it.

I do find a lot of books in epub versions that are either out of print or, more likely, printed heavily abridged. I hate reading abridged books, so it's one of the few ways that I can read them in full (short of dishing out for expensive older volumes.) This is mostly true of science and travel works, at least in terms of my interest.

Novels I still prefer getting in hard copy since I appreciate the scholarly apparatus, the ease of marking, taking notes, and finding marked passages, etc.