Do you actually own anything when you go on vacation? You don’t. You pay for the experience. It’s the same thing more or less with books. You don’t pay for the physical copy but for what’s inside. The ideas of the author. The experience of reading it. It doesn’t matter if you have a physical or a digital copy. It’s exactly the same.

I’ve read a few short novellas that you can’t get physical copies of. Printed them out at work when I was alone in the office lol. Bound them and have them on my shelf now.

Worth it for me in this case but in almost any other scenario just buy the book. Buy used if you want to safe money.

Perhaps get a digital edition, and if you really liked it, seek out a physical copy to keep.

There are copyright concerns reproducing or printing a book out. I don’t think “fair use” applies

It really depends on what you mean by “worth it”.
When you start getting into the large page number range, the cost of printing starts to approach that of just buying the book outright.
On top of this you have bindings - they aren’t just pretty things for show, they preserve the book and increase its longevity in use.

There’s a reason why paperbacks are often referred to as “battered”. Loose leaves of text will have an even shorter lifespan and are prone to getting lost or torn.
You can get your printed pages bound, but then that adds extra cost, and by that point you may as well buy the book outright.

Digital libraries are great for compactness and accessibility, but if you want durable, physical hardcopies, you may as well just buy them. Secondhand if you can, if cost is a real concern.

I wouldn’t waste the paper and ink. Make sure your digital files are accessible (ie, DRM-free and in a common format) and backed up in several locations, and that’s about as much of a guarantee you can get for them.

Clearly your dad works for Big Ink.

The ink would be way more than buying the book itself

Definitely buy the book at that point. Also, some of those books have software that prevents printing.

Edit: Certain sellers such as Amazon are only selling you access to the file, not ownership itself.

what do you mean that you don’t trust the longevity?

I don’t trust the longevity of it, though.

I’d def trust more a digital compy than a physical one, you can always copy over a file, buying a whole new book can be pricy, especially for books that aren’t really too common, as long as you’re mindful of your data, it’s better digital

It’s possible your Dad told you to print them as a joke. Sounds like something I might have done.

Big fan of ‘personal collections’ over here. No disrespect meant to ppl who love their public libraries or school libraries (I do too)! But I have a few articles from scholars comparing differences between public resources (national musuems, public libraries, even subscription models like Netflix etc.)vs private collections and I prefer owning. Just my preference.

What?

Just buy the real copy wtf is this question lol I feel like your dad was fucking with you. It’s such a stupid idea I can’t imagine how anyone with any sort of logic would print out an enire ebook instead of just buying the book

Remove the DRM and back it up. You now own a file that nobody can take from you.

Ask yourself why you need a physical copy after you’ve read it once. Some books you can come back to and reread, but all books? Not likely. Once you’ve read a book like Hunger Games who cares if 25 years from now President Bezos takes his digital copy back from you? Space in your house is finite. Don’t fill it just to fill it. Curate your books.