eBook vs Paperback
I love to read, and try to do so in every possible moment that I can snatch from my schedule. It is not always possible to find time to read when you have young babies to take care of or if you work two jobs or if you are in any of other such situations.
Not everyone has the luxury to afford a home library and actually have the time to read the books eagerly and carefully chosen for reading.
Reading electronically on devices versus traditional hard cover books
But with the rapid increase of smartphones and reading devices, now we can read right from our phone in any place. That got me thinking about reading a book as a hard copy in our hands vs reading a book electronically.
I found there are pros and cons to both these methods of reading.
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Traditional Paperback
- You can take it to a beach, park or anywhere for that matter and have a lovely time just lying down on the grass and feeling the paper in your hands while reading.
- No problem with reading in sunlight.
- The book does not keep worrying you to handle it carefully, even if it slides down, you don’t damage it unlike your phone or kindle.
- And these days with such large display screens, phones tend to be awkward in hands and handling them is a little tricky while reading continuously.
- You can easily skip parts of the book you find boring and directly go to a page you find interesting instead of scrolling endlessly.
- Some people even use a book as a sleep-inducing agent 😉
- Your eyes are safe when you read from a book as you won’t be staring at any light-source to read.
Electronic books aka ebooks
- Reading ebooks is fun, because you can always get it delivered as soon you click that ‘buy’ button. No need to wait for its arrival for even a day. Even when you buy it directly from a book store, you need to wait till you get home 😉
- You can check out the reviews from other readers and choose to buy the book all at one place.
- The most exciting thing for me in an electronic book is that, you can click on any word, copy it and look it up on a dictionary within seconds.
- The meaning is even shown above the word in some readers like Kindle when you highlight the word. I used to procrastinate this part with traditional books because I am too lazy to open a dictionary and break the flow of reading a book. Then I forget the words altogether 😀
- Cost is less compared to paper based books.
- Most importantly, you can read it even when the light is out at night. No problem even if the baby is sleeping 🙂 You can just enable the night mode on the device and the light won’t spoil anyone’s sleep.
7. You can read while traveling too, no need to pack books with the suitcase. It is easy to access your reading device holding thousands of books than searching for books you packed in your luggage.
8. Waiting is less tiring now, as you can always be engaged, anywhere, anytime. All you need is a reading device, that could even be the kindle or kobo reader right on your phone!
9. You never run out of material to read.
With websites like BookBub notifying you about great deals on books and even free books to read that are very interesting, you can always keep you library full.
The Alchemist is my favorite book to read time and again in paperback and Sydney on a budget is my favorite ebook, my first ebook as an author 🙂
Have a great time reading and may God bless you with time to read 🙂
That’s pretty much the way I see it. I’ve been a lifelong reader, and book hoarder. I got sick – well, my wife got sick – of buying a bigger house every so often to fit in more and more books. Now I have most of my books stored on a hard drive, and I download them to my iPad.
And we live in a cottage.
Especially useful for travelling. I used to travel with a big bag of books, heavy and bulky. Not any more!
I love physical books, but the cons outweigh the pros for me.
SO oddly enough, I always got Ebooks because they were cheaper and were seemingly more convenient. I do a lot of traveling so it’s easier to have my ipad with a good library than having 5 different books tucked away in my bag. I’ve recently discovered my local library and got a card to visit so now I am that person lugging big books with me and the experience is a bit different and I’m enjoying it. I can def agree there are pros and cons to each method though.
yeah, so true!
That’s awesome!
I like the feeling of actual books so much more!
Cool 🙂
You may call it old stone age, but I always prefer Paperback/traditional hard cover books 😉
LOL 🙂
I’m not a huge reader, but I can get lost in a good book. I generally tend to like hardback, but electronic is good for when you’re on the go!
Spot on!
I love reading a paperback, there is just something about having the paper in my hands.
True 🙂
I am an avid reader and I have to say you have attempted to settle an age old discussion which may or not end well. I love both books and e-books equally. While I love the convenience of the e-book, I love the smell and touch of a physical copy. Having said that, I can never get the excitement when you get once you buy a book or get it delivered from the e-book delivery mail.
Take a look at my book blog if you want to 🙂
Gayathri @ Musings Over Nothing
Well said. Will do 🙂
Great comparison! I personally like to read hardcover books best! Although there is something amazing about a well-worn paperback! I like e-books for when I forget to bring a book but they are hard on my eyes. Thanks for a great post!
So true!
It’s great that this article mentions how ebooks are delivered to you as soon as you buy them and how they can even be read at night. I’d imagine that when choosing an ebook, you’d probably want to make sure you have the right app on your phone or any other device. They would probably be useful as well so that you can get more of them on a single device and easily carry them with you when you go somewhere, such as on a vacation.
True.