Do You Use Books or Computers to Learn Openings?

I'm writing a blog article and I'm interested in how many people read books vs don't read books.

I have seen posts here before where people said they never read books since they use the opening book for their engine to learn openings and I'm wondering how widespread that is.

Not very widespread i think. Unless you regularly face strong titled players who made specific preparation for you, learning openings is 90% learning the ideas and 10% learning the concrete moves (unless you play really sharp and forcing lines, but even then the main lines appear rarely on the board between two amateurs, and quieter understanding-based lines subvariations will be commoner). And an engine opening book is of course rather useless in terms of teaching you the ideas.

Creating an engine opening book with the lines you already studied on a classical book and then using it to practice is certainly commoner and more sensible.

I use books, but also sometimes databases to look for complementary games.

I used to make trees with pen and paper, unless the line could easily be looked up in my book. Nowadays I make trees in PGN format. The source really doesn't matter. The core lines with the ideas are of course still from books. I can fill in the gaps with whatever online source or even my own prep. if the line is not that common. 

I almost always use books, although I have a long-term project to enter my repertoire into ChessBase.  As you know, there has been a trend in opening books to present the material in a series of games.  (If you are lucky, there is a good index of variations provided.)  Personally, I find this less useful than the traditional hierarchical presentation of the various lines.  The reason for this is that I mainly use opening books for reference -- either to check my OTB games or when playing my correspondence games.  All this said, I also use chess databases as a reference too.  If I'm trying to learn the general concepts of an opening, chess videos are my choice (not one of the alternatives you mentioned).  I hope this helps.

SE

Yes

Books, books and books.

If they do not electric for some reason what are they going to do then. Or say they are not in a place they can use an electric device. But one can always open a book anywhere. Men have know to read books while on the throne(for example). You can read a book on a long flight. If a bood falls so what. You can pass a book your son or daughter. Once you read a book you can sell it and use the money to get another book.

Their is somethng about holding a book that gives you power and knowing you own this information.

I use books and computers.

Good question. I played chess before computers and now I've returned. I'm feeling my way through this brave new chess world. I'm a programmer, so I'm already comfortable with computers and enjoy learing the new tools. It's a matter of sussing out the best way for me to do so.

I'm taking a few repertoire books and opening monographs and converting the lines I want to PGN. I'm also making charts combining graphic chess positions with algebraic to get the lay of the land. It's fairly time consuming but it gives me an overview of each opening I never had before.

I thought I would be drilling openings on the computer, and I sometimes do, but surprisingly I find the lines don't stick in my memory as well as when I play the openings out on a real chess board and move the real pieces by hand. I hadn't expected that.

I have a mix of books and chessbase DVD's 

DVD that is the way i am going next.

I use good old trial and error for my practical repertoire. "Hey, this move looks cool!" *moves* *gets crushed* "Let's try that again!" *rematch* *moves* etc.

But for studying purposes, I use books (technically: a book) and anecdotal advice (all in my head now.) I don't own an engine or DVDs.

I watch videos on Youtube. Channels include thechesswebsite, onlinechesslessons, and chessnetwork.

I use "Guess The Move," a solitaire chess program to play over games from databases. This way I see how masters play the openings and the resulting games. I suppliment this with watching videos on chess.com.

I just bought my first chess opening DVD.  Books on paper are great but I am not to the point that I can read and think about a move.  I visually have to see it.  I have been working on a paper King's gambit for like 2 months and there is so much to take in that I always feel like I am drowning.  So then I bought some PGN books and have been reading them the program ChessX.  I like that if I see something not addressed I can move and have the computer tell me why it is a bad move. I fell that studying this way has really improved my tactics but not so much the opening.  It is hard for me to stay focused on the topic at hand without a little more help.  I do like the DVD so far though...When it comes to learning the openings I am liking the DVD a bit better because it keeps moving so even when I am a little confused about something it keeps pressuring me to go on so I don't get frustrated as quickly or stuck in deep thought about some line that they will go over later.

Computer is the best thing to practice what u learned from book or coach.. well, you can learn from computers but it takes lot of time.. to see what exactly its doing.. like for instance.. finding weak squares of ur opponent and targeting it is the whole point of game.. computer never teaches that.. but does it effectively all the time.. we can get that by playing against computer but it takes time to understand that one simple point..
check these games.. I improved a lot playing against it
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-showcase/against-deep-fritz-13-1750
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-showcase/vs-deep-fritz-13-1750---2