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August 5: All about Ebooks (suggested by me!)
Prompts: Are ebooks the future of books? What are the advantages and disadvantages of ebooks? Are ebooks strictly better than physical books? Do all avid readers prefer real, paper books? Do you use an e-reader, or read on a phone/tablet? Do you ever find yourself missing one or the other?
Welcome to another week of LTB here at DTRH! This week, it’s a topic suggested by yours truly. I actually don’t really remember what I wanted to say about this topic, but I certainly want to hear all your thoughts on this. So without further ado, let’s dive right in.
I don’t think e-books are strictly the future of books. But I do believe that e-books (and audiobooks) will by and large become a very large market for books, or at least big niches. That being said I don’t think they will either will ever “replace” the other. They really just aren’t the same thing, and there will always be a place in this world for both medias I think!
The main advantages is and will likely always be price and convenience for an e-book. Just nothing beats having unlimited books at your fingertips, limited only really by the memory of your device (although that is also expanding). One disadvantage that I find is that I’m also quite scared to damage my e-reader just as much as a book. So stuffing it randomly in a bag (especially with keys around, etc.) would make me similarly nervous as stuffing a physical book in a bag randomly. It just seems a little bit fragile! Another slight inconvenience is that I like the slightly larger handheld size of the e-reader (book-size), but that means it doesn’t really fit well in my pocket either. Small details, but still.
E-books are definitely not strictly better than regular books, but it definitely depends who you ask and when you’re asking. For example they may be slightly more impervious to water but I still don’t think I’d be swimming with an e-book.
I think generally avid readers do prefer physical books…in the sense that in a perfectly world with unlimited resources and space (and perhaps no environmental impact), people do like physical books a lot. That being said, literally none of those things are true in the real world so there are so many reasons why e-books take the advantage. This doesn’t make e-books any “worse” than regular books though, and in the spirit of this prompt I’d say actually avid readers probably prefer whatever “book” they can get their hands on. The reading experience is important yes, but not at the cost of being able to read the story at all, if you’re an avid reader I think!
I usually do use an e-reader but I also read off the library app on my phone. The phone is definitely slightly more tiring, but it helps a lot when the background is black with the white text (equivalent of dark mode). Of course this slowly drains my phone battery and is still slightly worse for my eyes, but it works in a pinch when there’s something I want to borrow and read. The convenience of these two media are just unmatched!
I am one of those people who will always miss the other when I’m using one. The inconveniences of a real book remind me of an e-book (even something as simple as returning the book to the library, or finding a bookmark), whereas the mechanical feel of an e-reader sometimes makes me feel like missing the feel of turning actual pages in a book. Another inconvenience of an e-reader is being unable to easily flip back and forth between chapters as easy as I could with a physical book. Does anyone else relate to that?
Down the Rabbit Hole 