Print Versus E-books
I love books. I love books so much,
I got a job working in a bookstore. And doing so has greatly increased the
volume of books that I own. I love seeing them all lined up neatly and
alphabetically on my bookshelves. Big books, skinny books, pretty books, scary
books, art books, writing books, all kinds of beautiful, glorious books. They
all make my soul happy. I also own a couple of e-readers, both a Nook and a
Kindle (because no one should be limited in their reading venues) and I’ve got
a slew of titles stashed on each of those as well. But I continually get
customers in the store questioning me about whether our Barnes and Noble is
going to close like so many other bookstores because e-books are so popular--yet
here they’d stand in front of me buying a stack of paper books…Are print books
endangered? I decided to take a poll.
I launched a quick survey on
social media asking friends to vote for their favorite source of reading entertainment:
Did they favor paper books or e-books, and why? It was a resounding win for
paper books! Only one person out of more than twenty preferred e-books to paper.
This gentleman enjoyed reading on his phone, in the bathroom-a little TMI. But
every other respondent claimed paper books as the clear favorite for several
different reasons.
Most of the folks who answered my
survey seem to want the tactile experience of holding paper books. Feeling the
heft of the weight in their hands, turning physical pages, and watching their
actual progress through the book as they read. Many expressed a love for the
smell of books, and the ability to highlight quotes and annotate in paper
books. Reading a paper page is gentler on the eyes than the glare of a screen.
Paper books don’t have a battery to charge so they’re always ready to be
enjoyed. The best reason was being able to share your books with friends.
There is also lots of research
showcasing the many benefits of reading paper books as opposed to e-readers. One
website, Uproxx.com, presents an article supporting print over e-books. It
quotes research findings that reading on a screen at night can have adverse
effects on your ability to fall asleep, keeping you awake longer and inevitably
leaving you feeling more tired and less rested the next day. It also suggests
children learn better with print books, as devices can be a distracting
deterrent to younger, shorter attention spans. And even more seasoned readers
retain information better from printed pages since our eyes, often irritated by
screen glare, tend to skim quickly over a digital page but read much slower and
more thoroughly with paper books.
On the other hand, there are some
great advantages to e-readers. As someone who has moved multiple times, it can
be very costly—and exhausting—to move a lot of physical books. They’re heavy.
They take up a great deal of space. They need the occasional dusting and
protection from mold and damp. But e-readers have the amazing advantage of infinite
cloud storage. People can own literally thousands of books, stored light as a
feather in a single device. And you can have each one of those titles available
at the simple touch of a finger, wherever you are, whenever you want. That’s
genius.
E-readers are also a good deal
sturdier than paper books. I read constantly and toting paper books in my bag
often leads to bent pages or scratched and dented covers. I’ll admit I’m also a
bit of a messy eater and always seem to splash a little of whatever I’m eating
onto the pages that I’m reading. I have a gorgeous, leather bound illustrated copy
of Game of Thrones that I won’t even allow myself to read because I know I’ll wreck
it with a splotch of soup or splash of coffee. But if I spill a little on my
e-reader screen, a simple quick wipe erases any sloppy dribble, no damage done.
The day is saved! And contrary to one of my survey poller’s
opinions, it’s quite easy to highlight and save notes in your e-reader. No, you
can’t do a quick flip through the pages, looking for a pretty colored highlight
or a bright bit of post-it, but it’s super simple to search saved quotes and
comments. It just takes time getting used to doing it electronically.
There is one final development in
e-reading that has swept me off my bookish feet. Amazon has created the Kindle
in Motion. I’m talking about animated books! This is going to change the face
of reading forever. Jim Kay, artist and illustrator for J.K. Rowling’s beloved
Harry Potter series, has had his beautiful artwork literally come to life in
Amazon’s animated version of the Sorcerer’s Stone. If you’re at all familiar
with Jim’s gorgeous renderings in the first three of Rowling’s cherished
series, you will fall head over heels seeing the incredible illustrations magically
move right on the page! Amazon also offers several other animated books with
their Kindle in Motion and I’m extremely excited to see the direction these
e-books will undoubtedly grow!
So, are print books in any danger
of disappearing? Certainly not. E-commerce may eventually make our beloved bookstores
a thing of the past if we’re not careful, but e-books by no means will ever replace
our desire to hold, feel, traverse, sniff, scribble in, and share our precious
paper books. Read on, dear friends. Read on.
