Sebastian I actually remember how I listened to the talk in amazement some 20 years ago.
I'm quite happy to give up those advantages for the ones I get with ebooks. I have about 3,600 books on each of two 10" tablets, one upstairs by my bed for reading myself to sleep, and one downstairs for continuing a story I've started elsewhere. That one's handy for doctors' waiting rooms, etc. And when I start the downstairs tablet, I get a prompt to move to the page last read in the upstairs tablet, before I put it down and went to sleep. They're connected to the same wi-fi network, you see, so they can talk to each other, and they do.
Although the bookstore is nowhere near my house, after I've made an online purchase, like yesterday, the books are almost immediately available in my library. I don't need to drive somewhere to buy them, pick them up, and cart them home, or pay extra to have them shipped here.
My granddaughter is a fan of the same sci-fi and mystries that I enjoy, and B&N makes it easy to move books I've read from my library to hers, so they can be lent. When she's done with them, they're moved back to my library, so they remain mine.
Many authors of ebooks - even bestselling ones - like to make the first ebook in a series available for free, in order to attract readers to the universe and characters of that series. I've gotten many very interesting reads for free, and many times I've gone on to purchase other books from that series, so it works well for both authors and readers. And if I can't get "into" a story, or don't appreciate a new authors writing style, that first look has cost me nothing but a bit of time. And the books that I do buy typically cost $2.99 to $4.99 each, instead of $12 to $25 as bound books. I believe I once read that B&N has 50,000+ free ebooks to choose from, but it's probably far more than that by now.
If I had to store my 3.600 volume library in physical space in my home, it would require many bookcases. And they would be mostly full of books I'd never care to read again - even the ones I'd enjoyed very much. Instead, my library fits on a thin tablet with room to spare. I can easily carry the entire library with me (those millions of 1's and 0's don't weigh much at all), and the reader software makes it easy to find and select a book that I may have acquired years ago, and am just now getting around to reading.
The tablet provides its own reading light, so when I read myself to sleep at night, I can do so without keeping my wife awake. And I adjust the brightness and backlight color to values that don't keep me awake, either. Reading for a while - usually a chapter or two, depending on the book - allows me to relax and drift off to sleep without any drugs. It's the best answer I've ever found to insomnia.
I'm sure I'll think of other advantages to ebooks as soon as I post this, but I'm pretty sure I've made my case by now. And much as I admire Richard Stallman, his opinions about ebooks may have evolved quite a bit during the last 23 years.
