How many still use books?

[Shoggz]

Yes, I use both for research purposes, but books go beyond that. I get pleasure from just owning them and fondling them. 

 

The Valiant Wings books and the Wingleader series just look good in my bookcase and are nice objects in their own right!

[LSP_Mike]

Agreed. I was looking thru my original Aero Series books from the late '60s; I have the one on the Devestator. Happy to see that.

[BiggTim]

I use both. I actually don't keep a lot of books around, as I don't have the space for them, so when I'm diving into a project, I will usually buy a few good references, and then pass them on when I'm done with it. I'm not one to build a lot anyway, and I definitely don't build many of the same type plane, so I usually only need them once. Except for P-38s - I keep all of that, and will build as many as I can.

[D.B. Andrus]

1 hour ago, Juggernut said:

I use books constantly.  I'll also refer to websites as needed but my primary reference source is a printed book or manual.

 

+1

[Modelboy]

I am Old School and love to have books in my hands. Love the way they smell. The interweb is something I am barely proficient with. I hardly made it here. 

[Out2gtcha]

32 minutes ago, BiggTim said:

I use both. I actually don't keep a lot of books around, as I don't have the space for them, so when I'm diving into a project, I will usually buy a few good references, and then pass them on when I'm done with it. I'm not one to build a lot anyway, and I definitely don't build many of the same type plane, so I usually only need them once.

 

This is me for sure.

[europapete]

Books every time. As has been said, it's the whole book experience. 

[vince14]

I'm actually thinning out my book collection right now. Whilst I still use books as references, and they're great for an overview of the subject, I find it easier to use the internet for some specifics. I also build model race cars and there is an absolute dearth of good reference photos in books for the underside and interiors of most race cars, but a few minutes on the internet will usually yeild good results.

[Oldbaldguy]

1 hour ago, Shoggz said:

 

You're on bloody fine form today OBG. Is that the effect of being a year older?!

Indeed.  All these years of accumulated wisdom and charm, I would think.  Plus my cranium expanded thru my hair line years ago.

[thierry laurent]

Even if I'm daily working with computers I could not live without paper books and this extends to my hobby as I own some thousands of aviation and military history books. They are invaluable and if I had to choose between them and my kits, I'm not sure I would take the scale models! There are very rare topics for which the web is a better source. Typically it is complimentary and I'm often relying on both. The only recent cases for which I got more digital references were the RQ-8B Navy drone and the military versions of the Gates Learjet. However this is really the exception. Last, I'm not really fond of ebooks.

[LSP_K2]

Both for me, though I don't consider either as research, just reference.

[DeanKB]

Books, every single time. I find online stuff very unreliable, whereas a book generally has some solid research behind it, copy writers, editors and peer reviews. Most of my books are digitised & held in Google Drive.

[Archimedes]

The internet is amazing but can lead anyone astray very quickly. Few internet sites have the depth of research that goes into a book.

 

Books in contrast are limited to their publication date and, if there is an error, there it stays until another print run (if the error is picked up at all).

 

I find the internet is abundant with photos but, inevitably, a proportion are miscaptioned depending on where one goes to find them.

 

Research can be a bit like doing a full formal literature review at work for me: one uses a combination of sources to arrive at the clearest conclusion possible based on all of the evidence available.

 

So, I use both books and internet. Mostly I use sites which have good, peer-reviewed info (such as LSP or The Aerodrome). I also enjoy hoovering up the tidbits of information I pick up from SMEs on my travels. One of the joys of LSP has been the number of people who have forwarded a key piece of info that is not publicly available.

 

Research, is therefore, a highly enjoyable sub-category of me being a kit-assembler.

 

Kind regards,

Paul

Edited January 20 by Archimedes

[DeanKB]

1 minute ago, Archimedes said:

The internet is amazing but can lead anyone astray very quickly. Few internet sites have the depth of research that goes into a book.

 

Books in contrast are limited to their publication date and, if there is an error, there it stays until another print run (if the error is picked up at all).

 

I find the internet is abundant with photos but, inevitably, a proportion are miscaptioned depending on where one goes to find them.

 

Research can be a bit like doing a full formal literature review at work for me: one uses a combination of sources to arrive at the clearest conclusion possible based on all of the evidence available.

 

So, I use both books and internet. Mostly I use sites which has good, peer-reviewed info (such as LSP or The Aerodrome). I also enjoy hoovering up the tidbits of information I pick up from SMEs on my travels. One of the joys of LSP has been the number of people who have forwarded a key piece of info that is not publicly available.

 

Research, is therefore, a highly enjoyable sub-category of me being a kit-assembler.

 

Kind regards,

Paul

Which is why us modellers tend to develop little mini libraries at home.

[Christa]

I use books.  

 

Good aircraft images, now available online, offer an amazing wealth of interesting and useful information for my modelling needs. However, the likes of Valiant Wings, Windsock Datafiles, Modelling Specials and recently Wingleader Photo Archives provide carefully selected, detailed information appropriately illustrated. I value KLP publications online too, but most of my aircraft stuff is in print.

 

The majority of my aircraft related book shelves hold story books - the stories of aircraft companies, engineers, designers and their magnificent flying machines; test pilots, delivery pilots, service pilots, aircrew and ground crew; squadrons, wings and entire airforces at war, campaign by campaign, battle by battle and even sortie by sortie sometimes; pioneers of flight and dedicated inventors like James Martin of MB's ejector seat fame; aircraft recoverers, restorers, rebuilders and operators; museum exhibits and their curators.

 

Good ol' Bill Johns. I never dreamt that The Camels Are Coming would lead me here, via so many fascinating chapters..