At this point, everyone knows I'm hugely into books.
It's just so depressing how even book people are about nothing more than intentionally creating this self-perpetuating "community" of anxiety.
You can't go to any freaking book-related online space without people asking for permission to not finish a book. "Is it okay to DNF?????"
Same with doing shit to your own books. Do not write into them, do not open them too much or the spine will crack. Get a panic attack because two fucking photons touched the book and how it will be DAMAGED.
"I am having a panic attack because maybe I didn't get all the references in this book."
The same with every hobby. Cooking? You are not environmentally friendly enough, you are not authentic enough, this is wrong, that is wrong.
Hell, I am kiiinda thinking about a Switch, I looked at Animal Crossing and people are freaking the fuck out at others for not playing the game "right". Others are having depression because their islands are not aesthetic enough.
How did the internet turn everyone so fucking neurotic over the things we were supposed to do as FUN? And I am not even just talking about SJW things, but every community is about "doing it the right way" even though it doesn't matter and there doesn't exist a right way?
We ebook reads aren't real, because we can't SMELL the books.
(Funny enough, I have a barely existing sense of smell because of a childhood illness, so I can't really smell them much anyway. Never will be a real reader.)
That is if you buy them from like Amazon. You don't have to have your ebook reader connected to the internet, you know. In offline, nobody can do anything, especially if you load the books from your computer.
By that logic, the physical books are one spilled glass of water/leaking pipe/random bug or other pest infestation/fire etc. away from being destroyed.
This is the way. I have a Kobo specifically because I can drop an Epub or text file on its internal drive and it will just read it. Calibre can manage books offline for a number of e readers, but I like that I can just open random txt files
Download the epub or mobi, run it on calibre that connects to your server and read them
Old version of Kindle for PC + Older version of Calibre + DRM-removal plugin. Download 'em as you buy them, strip the DRM, upload them to your own cloud storage as a backup. Plus, as an added bonus, with Calibre you can set the covers for the books in your library so you don't have to use the godawful "NOW COMING TO NETFLIX", "SOON TO BE AN AMAZON MOVIE", and "COMING SOON TO THEATERS" covers that publishers slap on the books well after you've bought them but Amazon seems intent on updating years down the road.
Tbh ebooks suck if you ever need to go back to look up something from earlier, it's much easier to do it in a physical book.