Greg linked to an article the other day I’m never buying another Kindle, and neither should you which has at its core a thesis anyone paying attention to anything should meet with ‘well, duh.’ And given where it is published, there is more than a little bias showing through.

However, that doesn’t mean the author isn’t wrong. Lock-in for some things is absolutely desirable when you are the one reaping the majority of the benfits. This is why when people start talking about ‘multi-cloud strategies’ they should be laughed out of the room. (Lock yourself as tightly and as deeply as you can to your cloud vendor and don’t make any comprimises around your infrastructure.)

We live in an IP rental world. No one ‘owns’ a movie anymore. And when it rotates out of their streaming service, their access is gone. It is almost impossible to buy a standalone DVD player at some stores when they used to be ubiquitous. (I have no idea how I’m going to watch the Macross 2 DVD I kickstarted…)

I suspect we’re on the front wave of a return to physical assets for our media. I read somewhere that Criterion is doing extremely well. And there is the whole return-of-vinyl story.

Please let dead tree books be next.

Every so often the ‘unhinged smut’ side of Instagram leaks into my feed and there is the notion of ‘trophies’ where they read the digital or audio version (at warp speed. ‘speedmaxxing’ for the kids?) and then buy the print version for their shelves. But that also means you are paying double for it. (Or pirating one? Which is a separate problem.)

Books are meant to be read. To be held. To be lugged inconveniently on transit. To be experienced.

But I also say this as a middle age white dude in tech who until recently had a ridiucloud pay cheque who could afford to buy first edition hardcovers and limited editions. (Hire me? I have a book and art problem to finance…)

I don’t collect trophies. I collect memories. And they sit in boxes in storage until the day I win the library and can built myself a Victorian era-esque library for them.

(Also, don’t get me started on everyone grading and slabbing their comics. Read those too!)

Bins