I’ve noticed that I’m more motivated to complete learning a particular topic if I have it in paper / hard copy. Of course, there are tons more information available online compared to one hard copy book on a particular topic, and yet I think that’s part of the problem with browsing for certain topics. There’s just too much information !!! Take my case for example, I was looking for topics on sales and marketing. Do you know how many results are returned from Google on such a query? Definitely more than I’d like to sort through 
Just to support that point: I have online education access to a multitude of courses that I can choose from. It’s quite easy to use, just browse to it, select a course I like and it brings it up in the browser. The problem with this is that the distractions of being on a PC keeps preventing me from completing anything. Emails keep popping up every few minutes, temptation to check the latest news, people calling to fix problems, etc. Even though I have a fixed training time in the office, I still can’t avoid the email/call that needs my immediate attention.
The beauty of buying a book is the fact that I’ll still be able to have a leisurely read on the train during my trips back and forth from work, and also in places where I don’t have a PC in front of me. Sure it costs a bit more, but what’s the use of free information on the internet if I never have the chance to finish my study of a particular topic? Sometimes I just get a defeated feeling when trying to learn something from the internet, because of the knowledge that there’s no end to things I can find out there.
I still read things on the internet for high level knowledge and google like crazy for every problem I find, but to grow and learn, I think I’ll start buying books from now.
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