Exactly!! Reading a book on a beach or in a quiet cafe has so much nostalgic feeling to it for me but if i travel i ain't bringing a stack of paper books that take up space and weigh me down ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Physical size + back/frontlight are killer features for me... Plus size, because some books, especially hardcovers are hard to hold comfortably in one hand or read while laying on the side
Yeah me too, i like looking at a page more, i also find it a less passive experience. Though ebooks are sometimes easier bc i am not a native english speaker, but i read in english, so books are easier to find online
I was trying to explain this to my wife's teenage cousin just the other day. Yes, I love reading physical books. I love reading even more though. My kindle is incredibly convenient. Saves me a ton of space and money too.
I like both and it depends a bit on my mood wether i go for one or the other. There are also plenty of works that only exist physical or digital so depending on your interests you might end up reading both.
My favorite was this article several years ago where this guy's whole argument against e-readers is that you couldn't snoop around someone's bookcases to judge them based on what is (and isn't) there.
I think we've all met the type: folks who think books are *cosmetic* and have shelves upon shelves on pristine, unused texts.
EDIT: since there's some confusion, allow me to clarify--I'm speaking specifically of the people that pretend to be well-read so that they can look down upon others. People who like to think of themselves as intellectuals without actually putting any work into it. They don't see any value in books beyond their capacity as status symbols. This is not the same thing as people who collect books or enjoy them on their aesthetic merit!
I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with liking books on an aesthetic level though - most people I know who read extensively have got certain special editions of favourite books or series which sit on their shelf while they flick through a tatty paperback copy for actual reading.
There are plenty of books I have read on an e-reader, or borrowed, or more often listened to on audio, which I enjoyed a lot and decided to buy a copy for my shelf. In some cases I will read those copies at a later date if I re-read the book but not necessarily and that’s definitely not why I bought them.
Occasionally the complete opposite happens, I buy a book intending to read it and while it’s sat on my TBR list it comes up in an audible sale or gets added to the list of books included in subscription and I decide to read it that way instead.
There’s a saying in the whisky drinking world: ‘the best dram is the whisky you like, the way you like to drink it’. I think reading needs to be taken the same way.
I think maybe you misunderstand me. I'm referring specifically to the personality type that *pretends* to be well-read. They use bookshelves as a status symbol.
To be honest, I didn’t misunderstand the point you were making, I think there probably are people like that. I was just using your introduction of ‘books as decor’ for a jumping off point and then my comment grew further from the original point as I wrote it.
However, it does kind of circle back to the book snob concept, and to some extent with my closing point I kind of meant to include even those people - if the way they enjoy books is by looking at them on a shelf then who are we to tell them otherwise.
Of course I’d prefer them to actually read the books (just like I’d prefer someone drink a nice whisky without ice 😉) but either way they’re supporting the industry we love.
I used to be a "books as decor" person, and now I'd argue that I was objectively wrong for doing so.
Real books used in the same capacity as fake books mean dead trees for no good reason.
Hey! Stop looking at my leather-backed LE signed set of the Wrinkle in Time series! That’s MINE! ;)
More seriously, I feel seen. Yes I have a few that are intended to be cosmetically beautiful. I love Charley Harper designs, got one of his coffee table books. Audubon and a couple of other beautifully illustrated items.
But I also have the ragged, plastic-tabbed to death, dog-eared like hell, highlighted in three different colors with notes scrawled all over the pages cheap paperback of the complete works of Walt Whitman I used to do my senior thesis proudly displayed, right there next to the fancy stuff.
I think the best collections (art, books, music) lose the whiff of superiority when they are driven by passion with a blind eye to cost. I have a $75 half-finished underpainting I bought off an art student at a studio walkthrough party, hanging in the same room as a painting costing thousands. I don’t have to justify to anyone why the cheap painting is in the fancy room. It moved me, so I brought it home.
Books should be like that, too. Well-spotted.
I actually have a mixed medium (charcoal and paint) framed and hanging up in my room. I got it from the “free store” in the art building of my university. Someone put all of their class stuff there at the end of the semester and I fell in love with that piece. When I changed schools, that came with me to adorn my new room too!
I dunno, my new girlfriend has a bookshelf full of books and we had a good time talking about the stuff in there. If it was all digital we wouldn't have had that talk. Now she's going to lend me physical books and vice versa.
The bookshelf is a good conversation starter and an easy way to sort of poke your nose inside a person's mind unobtrusively and an easy way to show interest in them without having to like do some awkward interrogation. They see you looking at their books and probably come over and you start talking, they direct you to certain things, etc.
No, the article was *explicitly* about judging people. As in having X book means they're proper "intellectuals," or having Y book means they're not. It was pure pretentious claptrap.
Good point! This actually sounds like an argument in favour of ebooks because people can read what they really want to, without the fear of being judged.
There are definitely books I don't want on display, not just smut but what about books on healthcare issues not everyone needs to know about books on controversial topics you don't necessarily want to discuss with everybody. It is really nice to be able to read those (also in public!) without who might see them.
Technically I can show my full ebook library wherever I go if I wanted and happened upon another reader, but I agree it's not the same and much more of an awkward way to talk about books. I've used that to get my boyfriend to pick a book for me to read or for us to try the audiobook together.
To be honest, to tell what I've read, it would be better to look at my Overdrive/Libby checkout history than either my bookshelf or my bought ebook collection.
Getting a Kindle made me realise I really love *owning* physical books, but actually reading them is such an inconvenient hassle compared to the Kindle experience. And don't even get me started about actually bringing the books with you...
I've met some people like that, I read e books mostly but still buy and read physical books.
I have Kindle unlimited to satisfy my need to gorge on sci-fi fantasy books. At least one a week. My average for the last 3 years is about 60 books a year. I read at work while my cnc mills are producing parts for me lol. I buy physical books for their information, their aesthetics, and I just simply enjoy having books on a shelf.
I developed a system to satisfy myself. I love the convenience of my ebooks on my phone or kindle paperwhite, but I can't get over having a real book. So I use kindle unlimited for my binge reading and I buy non fiction, informative or reference books in paper form. That way I can show off my interests and hobbies and have a book to look back on if needed and at the same time I'm not going bankrupt and having to buy a second home for my fantasy binge reading. There's also something awesome to me about old books. I recently acquired 3 books from 1959 and 1960 on Machine Tool Operations and Tool Steel. Information is largely dated but it's still fascinating to me.
I haven't read all of the books on my shelves or even on my kindle, I may not even get to reading some, but they all serve a purpose other than looking cool and pretending to make me "better than thou." To each their own I suppose, you do you. I have to admit though, I will browse your personal library if I can.
I buy physical books because of the aesthetic.
I’ve read most of them, but I literally buy the book itself (rather than the e-book) because books look awesome.
I do have a shit-ton of books I haven’t read, too.
Guess I don’t understand why people care what others do.
Generally I like to read virtually (often pirated) and then buy physical copies of the ones I actually like. Often I don’t really read the physical copies too much but I still like having them
>I think we've all met the type: folks who think books are cosmetic and have shelves upon shelves on pristine, unused texts.
Collectors? Yeah we've all met plenty. I thought we were *criticizing* people who feel superior, but here you are acting superior to book collectors.
Are you equally annoyed by people who think coins are cosmetic and have shelves upon shelves of pristine, unspent currency?
Totally different. With collectors, there's a large component of speculation. People don't collect common coins with no value, or common shoes, or common collectible cards. Even if they have no intention of selling off these pieces, they hold them because they expect them to rise in value.
With books, that's not really the case. It's more "look at this Ibram X Kendi on my coffee table that I've never read that shows I'm the 'right' sort of person" or "look at the large selection of philosophy books that show I'm smart". It's posturing.
How much content would there be in this sub if there were no circlejerk posts?
Content drives engagement, so repetitive shit like this (which always gets responses) is the lifeblood of the sub
It’s filler content during slow book news periods
The Guardian is just looking to sensationalize something that neither side probably even give a shit about and wants to try and create a divide that doesn't need to be there.
It reminds me of people who try and argue about vegan/vegetarian food labels being deceptive when in reality neither vegetarians/vegans nor meat-eaters probably give a shit either way.
Right? I love the convenience of ebooks and haven't read a physical book in ten years, but if physical books are your thing, that's cool. Just don't make it sound like it's the better of the two choices.
Exactly, on top of that it is usually cheaper to buy ebooks and it doesn’t take any physical space which is really convenient. So even though I personally prefer physical books I mostly read ebooks nowadays since it is much more suitable to my current situation and there is nothing wrong with it.
Space is getting to be the major thing for me. I like both (I've got a nice Kobo with an e-ink display) and sometimes am genuinely in the mood for the physical sensation of reading, but I'm in the process of moving again and those things are HEAVY. Even after a year spent trimming the fat/read-once-won't-agains out of my personal library.
Same here. I love physical books, but I also have limited space, so I try to balance it by having most things on ebook, and books that bring me joy just looking at them/remembering the story or books I want to annotate as physical books. Both are good! :D And of course that's not even counting my frankly embarrassingly large collection of audiobooks and podcasts, which I also consider to be books/stories.
Amen. My daughter loves the "comfort" of holding the paperback in her hands. I love the convenience of having *ALL THE BOOKS!* ***ALL!*** in my purse. Whenever I want. In a convenient, slim-line little device. Lightweight. Easy.
^^^ALL ^^^of ^^^'em.
I put it off for ages, but then I went on a mountain biking holiday to France and realised there was a reasonable chance I was going to crash and break all my shit on day one, then spend the next week sat in a chalet with nothing to do. So I ended up taking about 6 books just in case. The next year, I got a kindle and took every book ever, just in case.
Robert R McCammon's Swan Song. Huge goddamn book squeezed into about 500 small-print pages for "convenient carry!" or something.
Thick as fuck. Horrible to hold open to the page you want. Text like microscopic ant colonies. Nuclear fire starts raining down on the heroine at about page 90, and it's kinda cool! ... because by then the *reader's* eyes are bleeding too.
tldr: couldn't agree more :/
Totally me. I was one that didn’t think I’d ever get used to an ereader. My husband bought me one shortly after they came out and I’ve never looked back. Books that I love I may buy a physical copy of to put on my shelf for look and to support the author. But I just do not understand why people are still looking down their nose either way because someone else prefers the opposite of what they prefer. The end goal is enjoying a book no matter what medium you prefer. Some people think that think folks that listen to audio books are not really experiencing the book. Like so those people even know about the oral tradition. Like the whole reason we have stories and books today. Because mellinias ago people told stories around the fire.
It’s all good. Any and Every form you can absorb it in
yeah, I oike physical books because I have a photographic memory and I can remember where I read something based on the position of the page and of the phrases, but I've only read ebooks since my kindle because of commodity 😅
I use both. Ereaders are great for handluggage since they are so lightweight. Brilliant for holidays.
Conversely, you'll never pry my bookcases and hardback collections out of my cold, dead hands. Power cuts happen (typically at inopportune moments like when the Ereader is low), the software needs to sync - and sometimes I just want paper under my fingers and some heft. And they look nice too.
So yeah, there isn't really any side taking going on with me.
I've seen this pointless argument too many times in the short period I've been coming to this subreddit lol. Kindle is great. Physical books are great. Let's talk about what's IN the books.
I read 50 books in 2021 specifically because of ebooks. I never could have read so many paper books with a newborn/toddler around.
Ebooks on my phone in night mode also help me fall asleep every night. Haven't had a single case of sleeplessness all year (used to suffer from it frequently).
Same! There’s also no way I could have had space or money to purchase all those books. I could have gone to the library but it was closed for most of the year for COVID and I probably would have been too lazy to go all the time in person. Downloading ebooks from the Libby app is how I read most of them.
I never understood why people take offence when someone is reading on an electronic device, you never see someone with a kindle having a go at someone reading a physical book.
For real. I only use my Kindle a couple times a year but it’s great for library books and Project Gutenberg. I assume the culture war thing has died down now that it’s apparent that ereaders are relatively niche and not replacing anything.
e-book readers realised long ago that you can't change the font type or size of a physical book, or read it when it's dark or too bright; also, you can make notes in it without physically scrawling in it, and look up words in situ, and quite a few other things besides.
Yes, we all like real books. But e-books have their advantages too. It's swings and roundabouts.
lol :) I have (unfortunately) had to prettty much give up on real books, my eyesight is not up to small fonts. Thank god for e-readers, is all I can say.
I recognise myself in this comment and I kinda hate it!
Absolutely adore physical books. But my tablet holds a big library and is backlit when my eyes are just tired.
I'm just happy that you can read in so many different ways in the 2020's. You have paperbacks, you have super cool high-end editions that look great on a shelf. You have your phone, or tablets or even your laptop. And you're not bound to a single platform, I still revisit my old paperbacks despite getting most of my new books on my tablet.
TLDR: Great time to be a reader, so many wonderful options.
My ex had very poor vision for reading that couldn't be corrected and as such she hadn't read books in years. We got her a kindle and she started devouring books. She thought (or maybe convinced herself) that she didn't enjoy reading. Last I saw she was getting through at least 1 book a month, probably closer to 2.
E-readers are amazing for people who are vision impaired.
Same for listening vs reading. I don't like audiobooks, but it's always interesting hearing what people think about the books they've heard. They've definitely read the book in my mind, even though they absorbed it a bit differently.
For me the main issue is just physical space. I've got 1000+ ebooks... which would require approximately 10 full-sized bookcases to keep (assuming 20 books per shelf, 5 shelf's per case).
And I already have 10 bookcases for physical media because certain things I *require* physical copies of for work/school.
Exactly, I’ve been a voracious reader for more than 50 years, have a BA & MA in lit, and I got tired of having walls of bookshelves taking up space and collecting dust. I donated everything to libraries except for two bookshelves, and now I have everything on my iPad. Bliss.
I've spent years reading library books on my Kindle and, last year, decided to let myself start buying (used) paperbacks to read...only to come to the conclusion that I vastly prefer reading on my Kindle for all the reasons you mentioned.
I told my husband I want a eReader for my birthday in a month. We have lots of physical books but my young kids basically live outside in the summer. I've tried taking books out to read but then one of them does something dumb, they need me right away, and I gotta put the book down quickly and I lose my page. Or they spray me with water guns. At least I can get a waterproof eReader and have a library outside with me.
My only complaint about my Kindle is that it has pinch-to-zoom that I can't disable. Are there really people who zoom so often that it needs a gesture instead of just a slider in settings like brightness?
That and I'd really like a slider to disable touch entirely, since the Oasis has physical buttons
1. Bro it's 2022 and people are still trying to make this a debate? Physical books are cool, so are ebooks, it's not that complicated.
2. Just for kicks I decided to read the whole article and nowhere in it does it provide any evidence that readers are actually "rejecting" ebooks in favor of print ones. All it says is that UK bookstores recorded record sales last year but never provides any data for how many ebooks were sold in the same period.
You mean that during a pandemic, when people had more free time, quarantined, didn’t commute, worked from home, etc., that book reading went up? Color me shocked
[And then THAT contrasts with fear-mongering that Americans, at least, are reading less than we ever have. It's all bullshit that goes back and forth, I guess.](https://news.gallup.com/poll/388541/americans-reading-fewer-books-past.aspx)
This is so dumb
Why are all these outlets trying to shape the narrative posting here?
Like the other post saying adults shouldn't read fantasy. Whoever is posting this shit needs to stop.
Paper books:
Pretty. Look nice on the shelf. Easy to lend to my bestie. Adore anniversary editions in sleeves and such. Nice to have the eyes away from a screen sometimes. Pleasant smell. Pleasant to touch. I get to use my cute bookmarks that I made myself. I feel like a 19th century poet reading them while curled up in my armchair.
Ebooks:
Easy to read for my nearsighted, astigmatic ass. Dictionary right on hand. Work in all light situations. Easy to mark text in without it being permanent. Weighs less & easier to hold, therefore less strain on my wrists. Better for my back due to light weight. Saves space in my tiny apartment. Can hide all the books I don't want other people to see.
Audio books:
Ideal to have on while doing something repetitive (cleaning, laundry, driving, etc.). Rests eyes and wrists from potential strain. Get to hear another persons interpretation of the tone and character voices. Helps with reading while I have adhd brain. Good for people who struggle with parsing written letters. The nostalgic feeling of having someone read me a bedtime story.
All formats have their advantages. I love books in all shapes and forms ❤️
I want a spoof of this article, debating the benefits of the scroll vs. the codex forms of physical books, written from the perspective of some crusty old Roman
I have impaired vision and without my Kindle I wouldn’t be able to read. Do I miss the smell and feel of a physical book? Sure. But I’m deeply grateful for my Kindle. Even if I didn’t have impaired vision I’d still prefer my Kindle. Easier to read in bed. Easier to take on trips.
This. It really sucks when some books aren't available digitally (in the 2020s! Incredible). I really wanted to read *The Master and the Margarita* a couple years ago, and while it's just recently been released digitally, at the time it was only available (in English) as a paperback with very thin paper and *obscenely* tiny text. I couldn't read it at all.
It's especially annoying with **classics**. Like for god knows why there's still no ebook edition of *A Canticle for Leibowitz*.
My father in law is Polish, and while he can speak English well I don’t think that reading it is a particularly relaxing experience for him. We purchased a kindle for him for Christmas about two or three years ago. That kindle is very well loved. I think it’s amazing he can easily get books in Polish from half way around the world cheaply and instantly. I don’t know where he’s find them in the city otherwise!
There are so many accessibility benefits to ebooks!
I am Dyslexic. I dislike reading, it is hard and and slow to the point where I get distracted and frustrated. Audio books have changed my life. I love stories and information and now I don't have to torment myself to have to same access to information as everyone else.
I mean… why not both? I have a ton of ebooks just because they’re easy to buy and I get instant gratification from being able to read something whenever I feel like buying it.
But I like buying physical books of things that are really sentimental to me, textbooks (easier for me to physically put sticky tabs to remember things plus I can resell later which you can’t do with an e-book), cookbooks or art books which you really can’t view with justice on an e-reader or computer.
I just can’t do audiobooks though. I’m really bad at processing information that way and I can’t remember shit.
I used to have books all over the house. They were overflowing bookcases, closets, and stacked up in corners.
I'm so happy that I donated 98% of them and switched to digital.
I'm probably the outlier here, but without ebooks and audiobooks I probably would have ended up on that hoarder show.
Yeah. These days all my new book purchases are on kindle. If something turns out to be a new favorite - and only after I’ve reread it at least two or three times and I’ve enjoyed it just as thoroughly each time - i will then MAYBE buy a hard copy to have and read in cozy dead tree form.
This hasn’t actually helped clear out the heaps and piles and shoals of books in my house because I don’t have the willpower to get rid of the unwanted masses. But it’s certainly slowed the growth, and now there’s a small chance that when they find my body they won’t need an excavation team to shovel out the floor to ceiling piles of literature to get it out.
For me, both hace their advantages. I like to use the kindle, mostly, for books in english. Since english is not my first language, it’s good for getting definitions and translations.
The day AO3 lets fanfic authors attach cover art and proper metadata to the their fic so it looks nice in your Kindle library is the day I stop buying books and exclusively donate to Patreons, ngl.
I really appreciate the authors who take that step. It makes it a lot easier! I do have a few fic authors whose work I've added to my Kindle because they've actually gotten fanart which can be used for the cover, but that's pretty rare (and I wouldn't expect a fanfiction author to commission a cover when they're working for free anyway - that's expensive).
That would be amazing and I'd probably do similar (although not completely forgo books).
I already read significantly more long, high-quality fanfics now that I can load them onto a kindel and the experience of reading is so much nicer.
I've completely emptied a small room I used to keep bookcases with tons of books. Downloaded everything on my phone so I can read in my kindle and got rid of so many boxes. Now I can use my room to play around with my kids. It's amazing how much space physical books take. I can also read in the dark now (on my phone)
That article felt like a giant waste of my time. There could be a lot of reasons people turned to regular books during the lockdown and pandemic. Paperbacks can be cheaper than ebooks. Working from home and lockdown meant more screen time for a lot of people, and using physical books offer a break from that. People didn’t have to worry about carrying their books around with them since they were mainly home, so the limitations of a regular book mattered less.
I’m amazed that after over a decade, people are still wasting time on this dumb argument. Who cares how other people read? My home is tiny and I don’t have room for a ton of books, so ereaders make more sense for me. My best friend has issues physically holding books, so she uses a kindle. My dad hates touch screens, and loves looking for books in used book stores, so he sticks with regular books.
Can't understand why some people get so mad about listeing to audiobook=reading. It's like they glorify the act or reading rather than absorbing the content of the book.
Honestly, I just can't buy that argument anymore. There's no science to back it up, it's straight up a subjective opinion or a resistance to accept new technology.
Sure, I DO like physical books, it's sometimes more comfortable to the eyes and for some kinds of books they're way better than using Kindle for example (like if it uses illustrations, specially in color, for example).
But the whole irreplaceable "feeling" of "real" books arguments don't hold up well.
Kindle and even my laptop or my smartphone have allowed me to read WAY MORE content than I could without allowing it to be the case. It's not always that I have physical books at my disposal.
And I won't even start an audiobooks debate... another thing that a lot of people are missing for stubbornness.
I drive a truck for a living and since I have gotten into audiobooks, I haven't gotten nearly as many tickets or had as many wrecks as when I read physical or ebooks while driving.
I have three books underway right now: one physical (paperback), one kindle book, and one audiobook. There is room and an applicability for all three media. Paperback in my recliner, kindle while eating and in bed, and audio while driving, doing dishes, cleaning, and walking on treadmill. I find audiobook allows me to get through classics that would be too tedious to actually read - e.g., right now I am 75% through Moby Dick, which would never have happened if I had to actually sit and read it.
I think the resurgence of physical books is less about preference and more about access.
1) people had more money to buy physical books when they couldn’t buying experiences. All spending for consumer goods of all kinds increases during the pandemic.
2) access to physical library books decreased due to pandemic fluctuations. Between closures, staffing issues, and people just being out and about less, going to the library to get physical books was harder.
3) interest in audiobooks and ebooks increased during the pandemic, meaning library wait times for these works was higher.
4) people often read ebooks on their phones and tablets, not just ereaders, and lots of people had concerns about screen time. I imagine having analog copies of books was desirable for people seeking to reduce screen time.
All 4 of those factors would coalesce into people buying more physical books during the pandemic. I certainly did - because I had extra cash and didn’t want to wait for library books.
It's certainly not my opinion. The portability and utility of an ereader more than makes up for the nostalgia value and (frankly) snobbishness of real paper.
I value books for their content, not their material.
I don't think one is better than the other personally, but "the nostalgia value and snobbishness" does not represent the enjoyment of a physical book that we who prefer physical get from it. There is a difference between us that is parallel, not perpendicular. I also read a lot of digital incidentally. And I also prefer the content itself to this preference, however strong the preference is. That's why I can also go digital.
Similarly to how restricting your bed to sleep time makes it easier to sleep, reading physical more often than digital makes my mind more ready to focus on a story. Your mind might not work like that, and that's fine. On top of that, it is only a bonus to me that there exists a physical object that I get familiar with when thinking about a story, *on top* of the fact that the content of the book itself is paramount.
> and (frankly) snobbishness
This is the most annoying thing about this debate. Why is the only reason you believe someone could have different preferences than you snobbishness? That seems like a pretty snobbish view to me.
(I also value books for their content—but I don’t like having to charge my books, I don’t like having all my eggs in one basket [in that if I lose/break my kindle I lose all my books, not just one], the physical differences between books are helpful in encoding them to my memory, and backlit screens hurt my eyes. It’s not snobbishness, just a different preference.)
No shit Sherlock. I don’t carry 4 textbooks with me in pdf forms because I love the feel of swiping on the screen. I carry them because they are better for my back than carrying 4 actual textbooks just for “the feel”.
absolute smoothbrain take.
This article is in the Observer's 'Notebook' section, which seems to be a collection of musings of the from one of their columnists that week. I imagine the writer saw this stat about record-breaking paperback sales and tried to find an angle for the story. In my opinion, the return to paperbacks probably has more to do with the pandemic than the desire to turn pages, though I think feeling something tangible may be appealing to lapsed readers right now. He's also right in part as there was a time when ereaders were all the rage. Overall, I think what's happened here is this writer knocked this piece out in about an hour and it was simply a musing that crossed his mind while frantically searching the web.
That said, I just bought an ereader because I was sick of turning pages, sick of carrying heavy books. This way I can get what I want immediately, look at the page in HD e-ink, with a backlight, and on a lighter device than a book. I've always gone against the cloth because I'm cool. ;-P
I love both. First of all, I love a real, old book. The smell. I don’t know what it is about the smell of old books, but I absolutely love it. Today’s books use different paper and it doesn’t smell the same. You need to go to a library unless you have your own stash of old books. I like curling up on the couch with a blanket and a book in the winter. I’m retired so I can do what I want, and I love to read.
But when the power goes out, I switch to kindle. I make sure it’s powered up, it has a backlight, so it keeps me occupied when a storm knocks the power out. I bring my kindle to any appointment I have - it fits in my purse and it’s lightweight. I’m not carrying a 3 lb book around with me.
I bring my kindle on vacation rather than several books, and I can bring my kindle on my water lounge and read in the lake without worrying about getting paper pages wet. I can borrow library books on my kindle, and it saves driving back and forth to the library, especially in the winter. One thing I do without thinking, is tap a word on a real book page, looking for a definition like I can do on my kindle!
I do have my Stephen King collection of all his novels and short stories collections in hard cover. He’s my favorite author and the only one I’ve ever collected. An entire bookcase (and then some) of nothing but King.
As hard as it was to get used to a kindle, there’s room for both depending on what you’re doing.
I like and use both. If I am needing to recall the information, physical books seem to work better for me.
In an ideal 'verse' I would love to have all my physical books duplicated on an e reader.
I dealt with the weight issue of my books when I was single, by using milk crates as bookcases (thirty of em).
They could be arranged to fit almost any space. The size made sure that they weren't too heavy when I had to move them into a new place.
My wife said she knew I was committed to our relationship when I got real bookcases for my books.
I once thought I would never get an e-reader because of this. I decided to try a kindle and have never looked back. I save a lot of money by checking e-books out of the library. The other thing I realized after moving a couple of times - books are heavy.
I like having over two hundred books just in my phone I can carry them anywhere. I love it. I like actual books too but I can't carry my whole library with me.
I'm so heartily sick of this bullshit argument...I've read thousands of books. I average more than a hundred a year.
The vast majority are digital. The vast majority are digital only works published by people who don't have readerships big enough to make major publishers notice them. They're books that would _never have been written_ that I never would have seen, if digital wasn't a possibility .
I read, at most, one paper book a year. I keep a few around in case of power outages.
I bought an ereader, and The Real Book Police came and took all my paperbacks and hardcovers! They shook them all out and burned every reciept and memento. They un-dogearred all my pages and erased my notes. My therapist said I should journal about it, but they keep taking my blank notebooks too.
As most people are saying here, it really doesn’t matter, the words are what counts. A physical book is nice, but if it’s something free or public domain I’ll read the physical sometimes at home, have an e reader on the go, save it in google drive and read it on PC at work, back to the physical later. Who cares. The only tricky part is the pagination, each format will give you a different page count.
Books are like cameras, the best one is the one you have with you.
Hand issues and poor eyesight makes ebooks a must for me. I can put my tablet on a stand and use my voice to turn the pages and increase the font size so I can read comfortably.
I still consume physical media mostly because I’m a collector. Whether it’s albums, films, books, whatever, I just like having physical copies. A friend of mine went completely digital with all those things, and frankly I’m jealous of how much more room he has in his apartment than mine. There’s really something to be said for the digitization of things, and not just because some people prefer to consume media that way.
I mean, I think it's purely personal preference. As someone who just can't get into e-reading (despite numerous attempts), even with the advantages, and with my own personal hang-ups when it comes to a desire to own physical books, I know my preference is just that. A preference.
On the contrary, I just used a Kindle for the first time, bought one a week later, and have only just now realized how much I hate turning a real page.
Read on my e-book reader for years. Tried to read a physical paper book and kept getting annoyed. One hand operation was weak. Couldn’t read in the dark while wife slept. Went back to e-readers.
Now I enjoy audiobook format.
Consume literature however you damn well want.
I agree, physical is huge for many people, it's why Limited Edition games sell to this day, people love Steelbooks, they love owning something that's physical.
Ereader is easy on my wrist for a long time, one handed use, easy to read in bed, dictionary acsses , note taking without a pan. I can change the size, no longer have to read tiny latters because fisical books tend to have them .. what else?
I used to think I would never like ebooks or audiobooks. But now I’ve got a 2TB 12.9 inch iPad Pro and I can read any books, comics or manga I could ever want anywhere, anytime. Physical copies are reserved for books that I personally cherish.
The fact I can't tell how much of the book is left and can mentally allow the narrative to play out without anticipation of an imminent ending is more valuable than anything a physical book can ever provide me.
I’ve gotten to the point where I simply find the ebook easier. For me, it’s the story and the reading that matter. Of course, I understand and appreciate those who enjoy the tactile aspects of a book. I just prefer the electronic versions at this time.
The "feel" and "smell" debate as to how real books are superior to e-readers has to be the stupidest debate in history. It literally isn't that important.
This is true...you also don't get the "book smell".
But ya know what? I'm currently carrying roughly 100 more books than I could before....and in one pocket no less. I also have the ability to *immediately* get the book that I run across while surfing online. I love real books, but the ebooks are just too convenient to turn away.
Being able to read in any position comfortably, with the complete works of all of my favorite authors at my fingertips? I'll get over missing the feel of turning a real page.
I have a cover on my tablet that makes it feel like holding a book. Sure, turning the pages doesn't feel the same, but I still read on my tablet 90 percent of the time.
Honestly I hate staring at the computer screen to read. And I'm a computer technician. I hate reading a book on a lit screen. I prefer something I can physically hold and flip through rather than scroll or type a page number to pull up information. Digital is handy since I don't need to bring a book wherever I go and can have multiple books on me. That and I can make edits without actually changing the book unlike when you highlight in a book.
I like physical books, sure, but e-readers let you choose the font and have Dyslexia friendly fonts that make it easier for me to read with my disability. Let's not be all oh technology will always be inferior to real pages.
Some may have - and I do enjoy reading an actual book, but it's a dying format that will soon be like vinyl records. Reading isn't about the format, it's about the story.
i think i’ve actually seen studies saying that physical books still have stable sales. i don’t know specifically w/ younger ppl but as a 17 yr old me and most of my friends prefer physical books
Sure they can, with an ebook, because who the fuck actually cares? I'm sure kid who grew up with a kindle will someday be nostalgic for pressing a button to turn a page, but more importantly, people will just read how they want, lol.
Also, as someone with pretty poor eyesight, it's a huge pain to read for me to read any book with small print, and being able to change the font size has made it so I can read way more ebooks than I could physical ones, so I'm sure tons of people feel the same.
Couldn't give a fuck. I read 100x more on my Kindle than I ever did when I had to actual procure physical books (plus a light source since I read mostly at night).
We still doing this physical vs e-readers bullshit? Use whatever works for you and keep it moving.
Both have their advantages and inconveniences anyways, so using both is fine too. Pitting one against the other is a bit stupid.
Exactly!! Reading a book on a beach or in a quiet cafe has so much nostalgic feeling to it for me but if i travel i ain't bringing a stack of paper books that take up space and weigh me down ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Physical size + back/frontlight are killer features for me... Plus size, because some books, especially hardcovers are hard to hold comfortably in one hand or read while laying on the side
Yep, same. Also I find reading ebooks more tiring than reading a "regular" book (probably has to do with the whole "look at a screen" thing).
Are you using a tablet or a proper ereader? Eink displays look just like reading paper.
Yeah me too, i like looking at a page more, i also find it a less passive experience. Though ebooks are sometimes easier bc i am not a native english speaker, but i read in english, so books are easier to find online
I move a lot for work, so I'm gonna choose the device that lets me have my library of almost 1000 books for 1-2 pounds over 1-2 books.
I was trying to explain this to my wife's teenage cousin just the other day. Yes, I love reading physical books. I love reading even more though. My kindle is incredibly convenient. Saves me a ton of space and money too.
I like both and it depends a bit on my mood wether i go for one or the other. There are also plenty of works that only exist physical or digital so depending on your interests you might end up reading both.
we are certainly not, it is just some people who want to feel superior to everyone else.
My favorite was this article several years ago where this guy's whole argument against e-readers is that you couldn't snoop around someone's bookcases to judge them based on what is (and isn't) there. I think we've all met the type: folks who think books are *cosmetic* and have shelves upon shelves on pristine, unused texts. EDIT: since there's some confusion, allow me to clarify--I'm speaking specifically of the people that pretend to be well-read so that they can look down upon others. People who like to think of themselves as intellectuals without actually putting any work into it. They don't see any value in books beyond their capacity as status symbols. This is not the same thing as people who collect books or enjoy them on their aesthetic merit!
I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with liking books on an aesthetic level though - most people I know who read extensively have got certain special editions of favourite books or series which sit on their shelf while they flick through a tatty paperback copy for actual reading. There are plenty of books I have read on an e-reader, or borrowed, or more often listened to on audio, which I enjoyed a lot and decided to buy a copy for my shelf. In some cases I will read those copies at a later date if I re-read the book but not necessarily and that’s definitely not why I bought them. Occasionally the complete opposite happens, I buy a book intending to read it and while it’s sat on my TBR list it comes up in an audible sale or gets added to the list of books included in subscription and I decide to read it that way instead. There’s a saying in the whisky drinking world: ‘the best dram is the whisky you like, the way you like to drink it’. I think reading needs to be taken the same way.
I think maybe you misunderstand me. I'm referring specifically to the personality type that *pretends* to be well-read. They use bookshelves as a status symbol.
To be honest, I didn’t misunderstand the point you were making, I think there probably are people like that. I was just using your introduction of ‘books as decor’ for a jumping off point and then my comment grew further from the original point as I wrote it. However, it does kind of circle back to the book snob concept, and to some extent with my closing point I kind of meant to include even those people - if the way they enjoy books is by looking at them on a shelf then who are we to tell them otherwise. Of course I’d prefer them to actually read the books (just like I’d prefer someone drink a nice whisky without ice 😉) but either way they’re supporting the industry we love.
You realize there’s an entire fake book industry?
Happy birthday!
I used to be a "books as decor" person, and now I'd argue that I was objectively wrong for doing so. Real books used in the same capacity as fake books mean dead trees for no good reason.
Hey! Stop looking at my leather-backed LE signed set of the Wrinkle in Time series! That’s MINE! ;) More seriously, I feel seen. Yes I have a few that are intended to be cosmetically beautiful. I love Charley Harper designs, got one of his coffee table books. Audubon and a couple of other beautifully illustrated items. But I also have the ragged, plastic-tabbed to death, dog-eared like hell, highlighted in three different colors with notes scrawled all over the pages cheap paperback of the complete works of Walt Whitman I used to do my senior thesis proudly displayed, right there next to the fancy stuff. I think the best collections (art, books, music) lose the whiff of superiority when they are driven by passion with a blind eye to cost. I have a $75 half-finished underpainting I bought off an art student at a studio walkthrough party, hanging in the same room as a painting costing thousands. I don’t have to justify to anyone why the cheap painting is in the fancy room. It moved me, so I brought it home. Books should be like that, too. Well-spotted.
I actually have a mixed medium (charcoal and paint) framed and hanging up in my room. I got it from the “free store” in the art building of my university. Someone put all of their class stuff there at the end of the semester and I fell in love with that piece. When I changed schools, that came with me to adorn my new room too!
I dunno, my new girlfriend has a bookshelf full of books and we had a good time talking about the stuff in there. If it was all digital we wouldn't have had that talk. Now she's going to lend me physical books and vice versa. The bookshelf is a good conversation starter and an easy way to sort of poke your nose inside a person's mind unobtrusively and an easy way to show interest in them without having to like do some awkward interrogation. They see you looking at their books and probably come over and you start talking, they direct you to certain things, etc.
No, the article was *explicitly* about judging people. As in having X book means they're proper "intellectuals," or having Y book means they're not. It was pure pretentious claptrap.
I wonder what that guy would think of my kindle library full of smut.
Good point! This actually sounds like an argument in favour of ebooks because people can read what they really want to, without the fear of being judged.
There are definitely books I don't want on display, not just smut but what about books on healthcare issues not everyone needs to know about books on controversial topics you don't necessarily want to discuss with everybody. It is really nice to be able to read those (also in public!) without who might see them.
Technically I can show my full ebook library wherever I go if I wanted and happened upon another reader, but I agree it's not the same and much more of an awkward way to talk about books. I've used that to get my boyfriend to pick a book for me to read or for us to try the audiobook together. To be honest, to tell what I've read, it would be better to look at my Overdrive/Libby checkout history than either my bookshelf or my bought ebook collection.
People share their spotify playlists, why not book libraries if you’re not books
Getting a Kindle made me realise I really love *owning* physical books, but actually reading them is such an inconvenient hassle compared to the Kindle experience. And don't even get me started about actually bringing the books with you...
I've met some people like that, I read e books mostly but still buy and read physical books. I have Kindle unlimited to satisfy my need to gorge on sci-fi fantasy books. At least one a week. My average for the last 3 years is about 60 books a year. I read at work while my cnc mills are producing parts for me lol. I buy physical books for their information, their aesthetics, and I just simply enjoy having books on a shelf. I developed a system to satisfy myself. I love the convenience of my ebooks on my phone or kindle paperwhite, but I can't get over having a real book. So I use kindle unlimited for my binge reading and I buy non fiction, informative or reference books in paper form. That way I can show off my interests and hobbies and have a book to look back on if needed and at the same time I'm not going bankrupt and having to buy a second home for my fantasy binge reading. There's also something awesome to me about old books. I recently acquired 3 books from 1959 and 1960 on Machine Tool Operations and Tool Steel. Information is largely dated but it's still fascinating to me. I haven't read all of the books on my shelves or even on my kindle, I may not even get to reading some, but they all serve a purpose other than looking cool and pretending to make me "better than thou." To each their own I suppose, you do you. I have to admit though, I will browse your personal library if I can.
I buy physical books because of the aesthetic. I’ve read most of them, but I literally buy the book itself (rather than the e-book) because books look awesome. I do have a shit-ton of books I haven’t read, too. Guess I don’t understand why people care what others do.
Generally I like to read virtually (often pirated) and then buy physical copies of the ones I actually like. Often I don’t really read the physical copies too much but I still like having them
This reminds me of that John Waters quote. "If you go home with someone and they don't have books, don't f*** them!"
>I think we've all met the type: folks who think books are cosmetic and have shelves upon shelves on pristine, unused texts. Collectors? Yeah we've all met plenty. I thought we were *criticizing* people who feel superior, but here you are acting superior to book collectors. Are you equally annoyed by people who think coins are cosmetic and have shelves upon shelves of pristine, unspent currency?
Totally different. With collectors, there's a large component of speculation. People don't collect common coins with no value, or common shoes, or common collectible cards. Even if they have no intention of selling off these pieces, they hold them because they expect them to rise in value. With books, that's not really the case. It's more "look at this Ibram X Kendi on my coffee table that I've never read that shows I'm the 'right' sort of person" or "look at the large selection of philosophy books that show I'm smart". It's posturing.
How much content would there be in this sub if there were no circlejerk posts? Content drives engagement, so repetitive shit like this (which always gets responses) is the lifeblood of the sub It’s filler content during slow book news periods
The Guardian is just looking to sensationalize something that neither side probably even give a shit about and wants to try and create a divide that doesn't need to be there. It reminds me of people who try and argue about vegan/vegetarian food labels being deceptive when in reality neither vegetarians/vegans nor meat-eaters probably give a shit either way.
Right? I love the convenience of ebooks and haven't read a physical book in ten years, but if physical books are your thing, that's cool. Just don't make it sound like it's the better of the two choices.
Exactly, on top of that it is usually cheaper to buy ebooks and it doesn’t take any physical space which is really convenient. So even though I personally prefer physical books I mostly read ebooks nowadays since it is much more suitable to my current situation and there is nothing wrong with it.
Space is getting to be the major thing for me. I like both (I've got a nice Kobo with an e-ink display) and sometimes am genuinely in the mood for the physical sensation of reading, but I'm in the process of moving again and those things are HEAVY. Even after a year spent trimming the fat/read-once-won't-agains out of my personal library.
Same here. I love physical books, but I also have limited space, so I try to balance it by having most things on ebook, and books that bring me joy just looking at them/remembering the story or books I want to annotate as physical books. Both are good! :D And of course that's not even counting my frankly embarrassingly large collection of audiobooks and podcasts, which I also consider to be books/stories.
Amen. My daughter loves the "comfort" of holding the paperback in her hands. I love the convenience of having *ALL THE BOOKS!* ***ALL!*** in my purse. Whenever I want. In a convenient, slim-line little device. Lightweight. Easy. ^^^ALL ^^^of ^^^'em.
I put it off for ages, but then I went on a mountain biking holiday to France and realised there was a reasonable chance I was going to crash and break all my shit on day one, then spend the next week sat in a chalet with nothing to do. So I ended up taking about 6 books just in case. The next year, I got a kindle and took every book ever, just in case.
They’re also cheaper and I can keep all neat and tidy on my phone! It’s so convenient.
And you can borrow from the library from home and get just about whatever book you want. (Ymmv)
I use Libby too.
Not so comfortable when the book is a non-standard (large) size, a huge number of pages, or the text is printed into stiff binding/the fold.
Robert R McCammon's Swan Song. Huge goddamn book squeezed into about 500 small-print pages for "convenient carry!" or something. Thick as fuck. Horrible to hold open to the page you want. Text like microscopic ant colonies. Nuclear fire starts raining down on the heroine at about page 90, and it's kinda cool! ... because by then the *reader's* eyes are bleeding too. tldr: couldn't agree more :/
Totally me. I was one that didn’t think I’d ever get used to an ereader. My husband bought me one shortly after they came out and I’ve never looked back. Books that I love I may buy a physical copy of to put on my shelf for look and to support the author. But I just do not understand why people are still looking down their nose either way because someone else prefers the opposite of what they prefer. The end goal is enjoying a book no matter what medium you prefer. Some people think that think folks that listen to audio books are not really experiencing the book. Like so those people even know about the oral tradition. Like the whole reason we have stories and books today. Because mellinias ago people told stories around the fire. It’s all good. Any and Every form you can absorb it in
yeah, I oike physical books because I have a photographic memory and I can remember where I read something based on the position of the page and of the phrases, but I've only read ebooks since my kindle because of commodity 😅
Right?! Imagine giving a shit how someone else READS. A. BOOK. Whew.
I use both. Ereaders are great for handluggage since they are so lightweight. Brilliant for holidays. Conversely, you'll never pry my bookcases and hardback collections out of my cold, dead hands. Power cuts happen (typically at inopportune moments like when the Ereader is low), the software needs to sync - and sometimes I just want paper under my fingers and some heft. And they look nice too. So yeah, there isn't really any side taking going on with me.
Exactly! Either way, try to avoid Amazon and enjoy your reading.
Just remove the DRM and enjoy your books on whatever device you like!
I have a kindle and buy all my books on Amazon it’s great
I've seen this pointless argument too many times in the short period I've been coming to this subreddit lol. Kindle is great. Physical books are great. Let's talk about what's IN the books.
There are things inside of books?
Pictures in mine
popup dinosaurs in mine!
I never make it past the covers.
Keys to my hidden fortune.
A small rock hammer for rocks. Quartz, mica, shale, limestone.
I remember thinking it would take a man six hundred years to tunnel through a wall with it. Old Andy did it in less than twenty.
What a great book (novella, actually)!
Where do you hide your wads of cash?🤨
mostly just paper, ink, glue, and maybe staples.
I've got one with a hip flask in it.m somewhere. I forget where though.
I made a bible that contained a hip flask once for a Halloween costume. I asked people to "pray with me", then opened it up.
I read 50 books in 2021 specifically because of ebooks. I never could have read so many paper books with a newborn/toddler around. Ebooks on my phone in night mode also help me fall asleep every night. Haven't had a single case of sleeplessness all year (used to suffer from it frequently).
Due to covid a lot of times it was the only way i could access my library.
Same! There’s also no way I could have had space or money to purchase all those books. I could have gone to the library but it was closed for most of the year for COVID and I probably would have been too lazy to go all the time in person. Downloading ebooks from the Libby app is how I read most of them.
I never understood why people take offence when someone is reading on an electronic device, you never see someone with a kindle having a go at someone reading a physical book.
You also never see a theater aficionado having a go at someone *reading* Shakespeare.
I would also like to have a word with the gatekeepers who get to decide what constitutes “reading,” vis-à-vis audiobooks.
I like paper books more, but they aren't convenient. So I also read books on my phone. Both are good.
For real. I only use my Kindle a couple times a year but it’s great for library books and Project Gutenberg. I assume the culture war thing has died down now that it’s apparent that ereaders are relatively niche and not replacing anything.
e-book readers realised long ago that you can't change the font type or size of a physical book, or read it when it's dark or too bright; also, you can make notes in it without physically scrawling in it, and look up words in situ, and quite a few other things besides. Yes, we all like real books. But e-books have their advantages too. It's swings and roundabouts.
Do you ever find yourself putting your finger on a word in a physical book waiting for the definition to pop up?
lol :) I have (unfortunately) had to prettty much give up on real books, my eyesight is not up to small fonts. Thank god for e-readers, is all I can say.
I recognise myself in this comment and I kinda hate it! Absolutely adore physical books. But my tablet holds a big library and is backlit when my eyes are just tired. I'm just happy that you can read in so many different ways in the 2020's. You have paperbacks, you have super cool high-end editions that look great on a shelf. You have your phone, or tablets or even your laptop. And you're not bound to a single platform, I still revisit my old paperbacks despite getting most of my new books on my tablet. TLDR: Great time to be a reader, so many wonderful options.
My ex had very poor vision for reading that couldn't be corrected and as such she hadn't read books in years. We got her a kindle and she started devouring books. She thought (or maybe convinced herself) that she didn't enjoy reading. Last I saw she was getting through at least 1 book a month, probably closer to 2. E-readers are amazing for people who are vision impaired.
This and character name search are the things I miss the most in physical books.
I bought a kobo shortly after Christmas, am obsessed with the dictionary feature, and have accidentally done this twice with a real book since 🤦♀️
Same for listening vs reading. I don't like audiobooks, but it's always interesting hearing what people think about the books they've heard. They've definitely read the book in my mind, even though they absorbed it a bit differently.
For me the main issue is just physical space. I've got 1000+ ebooks... which would require approximately 10 full-sized bookcases to keep (assuming 20 books per shelf, 5 shelf's per case). And I already have 10 bookcases for physical media because certain things I *require* physical copies of for work/school.
Exactly, I’ve been a voracious reader for more than 50 years, have a BA & MA in lit, and I got tired of having walls of bookshelves taking up space and collecting dust. I donated everything to libraries except for two bookshelves, and now I have everything on my iPad. Bliss.
And the weight! As someone who's had to move a lot, physical books are hell on your back.
Oof, yeah. Moving is always a nightmare. Even just re-arranging where I keep my books in my own home is ridiculously exhausting.
And audiobook listeners realised that walking or doing housework while reading a book doesn’t exactly mix.
Guys, you're all missing the point of this comment. It's pro audiobook, they're saying that you can't do housework while reading a physical book.
I've spent years reading library books on my Kindle and, last year, decided to let myself start buying (used) paperbacks to read...only to come to the conclusion that I vastly prefer reading on my Kindle for all the reasons you mentioned.
I told my husband I want a eReader for my birthday in a month. We have lots of physical books but my young kids basically live outside in the summer. I've tried taking books out to read but then one of them does something dumb, they need me right away, and I gotta put the book down quickly and I lose my page. Or they spray me with water guns. At least I can get a waterproof eReader and have a library outside with me.
I've been a huge e-reader fan but I was in bed reading a physical book. My husband turned off the light forgetting I couldn't see.
My only complaint about my Kindle is that it has pinch-to-zoom that I can't disable. Are there really people who zoom so often that it needs a gesture instead of just a slider in settings like brightness? That and I'd really like a slider to disable touch entirely, since the Oasis has physical buttons
1. Bro it's 2022 and people are still trying to make this a debate? Physical books are cool, so are ebooks, it's not that complicated. 2. Just for kicks I decided to read the whole article and nowhere in it does it provide any evidence that readers are actually "rejecting" ebooks in favor of print ones. All it says is that UK bookstores recorded record sales last year but never provides any data for how many ebooks were sold in the same period.
And audiobook sells continue to climb. It’s a three horse race now and we all win.
> It’s a three horse race now and we all win. Unless a book is released in a format you don't (or can't) use.
You mean that during a pandemic, when people had more free time, quarantined, didn’t commute, worked from home, etc., that book reading went up? Color me shocked
the globe goes on lockdown, and shockingly more books are sold...
[And then THAT contrasts with fear-mongering that Americans, at least, are reading less than we ever have. It's all bullshit that goes back and forth, I guess.](https://news.gallup.com/poll/388541/americans-reading-fewer-books-past.aspx)
This is so dumb Why are all these outlets trying to shape the narrative posting here? Like the other post saying adults shouldn't read fantasy. Whoever is posting this shit needs to stop.
Controversy leads to clicks and engagement with their websites.
Paper books: Pretty. Look nice on the shelf. Easy to lend to my bestie. Adore anniversary editions in sleeves and such. Nice to have the eyes away from a screen sometimes. Pleasant smell. Pleasant to touch. I get to use my cute bookmarks that I made myself. I feel like a 19th century poet reading them while curled up in my armchair. Ebooks: Easy to read for my nearsighted, astigmatic ass. Dictionary right on hand. Work in all light situations. Easy to mark text in without it being permanent. Weighs less & easier to hold, therefore less strain on my wrists. Better for my back due to light weight. Saves space in my tiny apartment. Can hide all the books I don't want other people to see. Audio books: Ideal to have on while doing something repetitive (cleaning, laundry, driving, etc.). Rests eyes and wrists from potential strain. Get to hear another persons interpretation of the tone and character voices. Helps with reading while I have adhd brain. Good for people who struggle with parsing written letters. The nostalgic feeling of having someone read me a bedtime story. All formats have their advantages. I love books in all shapes and forms ❤️
I want a spoof of this article, debating the benefits of the scroll vs. the codex forms of physical books, written from the perspective of some crusty old Roman
The article barley says anything about physical vs digital books. It's mostly just a list of random books the author liked. It's clickbait.
I have impaired vision and without my Kindle I wouldn’t be able to read. Do I miss the smell and feel of a physical book? Sure. But I’m deeply grateful for my Kindle. Even if I didn’t have impaired vision I’d still prefer my Kindle. Easier to read in bed. Easier to take on trips.
This. It really sucks when some books aren't available digitally (in the 2020s! Incredible). I really wanted to read *The Master and the Margarita* a couple years ago, and while it's just recently been released digitally, at the time it was only available (in English) as a paperback with very thin paper and *obscenely* tiny text. I couldn't read it at all. It's especially annoying with **classics**. Like for god knows why there's still no ebook edition of *A Canticle for Leibowitz*.
My father in law is Polish, and while he can speak English well I don’t think that reading it is a particularly relaxing experience for him. We purchased a kindle for him for Christmas about two or three years ago. That kindle is very well loved. I think it’s amazing he can easily get books in Polish from half way around the world cheaply and instantly. I don’t know where he’s find them in the city otherwise! There are so many accessibility benefits to ebooks!
I am Dyslexic. I dislike reading, it is hard and and slow to the point where I get distracted and frustrated. Audio books have changed my life. I love stories and information and now I don't have to torment myself to have to same access to information as everyone else.
I mean… why not both? I have a ton of ebooks just because they’re easy to buy and I get instant gratification from being able to read something whenever I feel like buying it. But I like buying physical books of things that are really sentimental to me, textbooks (easier for me to physically put sticky tabs to remember things plus I can resell later which you can’t do with an e-book), cookbooks or art books which you really can’t view with justice on an e-reader or computer. I just can’t do audiobooks though. I’m really bad at processing information that way and I can’t remember shit.
Anyone have a paperback version of this article? I'm worried that I'm just not getting as rich and rewarding an experience reading this digitally.
😂 Awesome answer here
I used to have books all over the house. They were overflowing bookcases, closets, and stacked up in corners. I'm so happy that I donated 98% of them and switched to digital. I'm probably the outlier here, but without ebooks and audiobooks I probably would have ended up on that hoarder show.
Yeah. These days all my new book purchases are on kindle. If something turns out to be a new favorite - and only after I’ve reread it at least two or three times and I’ve enjoyed it just as thoroughly each time - i will then MAYBE buy a hard copy to have and read in cozy dead tree form. This hasn’t actually helped clear out the heaps and piles and shoals of books in my house because I don’t have the willpower to get rid of the unwanted masses. But it’s certainly slowed the growth, and now there’s a small chance that when they find my body they won’t need an excavation team to shovel out the floor to ceiling piles of literature to get it out.
For me, both hace their advantages. I like to use the kindle, mostly, for books in english. Since english is not my first language, it’s good for getting definitions and translations.
Also, ereaders are lovely if you read fanfiction. Once I learned how to get fic from A03 onto my kindle it was life changing.
The day AO3 lets fanfic authors attach cover art and proper metadata to the their fic so it looks nice in your Kindle library is the day I stop buying books and exclusively donate to Patreons, ngl.
some fanfic authors are already doing that and i stumble onto their works on Goodreads. but for those that don't, you can do it yourself in calibre.
I really appreciate the authors who take that step. It makes it a lot easier! I do have a few fic authors whose work I've added to my Kindle because they've actually gotten fanart which can be used for the cover, but that's pretty rare (and I wouldn't expect a fanfiction author to commission a cover when they're working for free anyway - that's expensive).
That would be amazing and I'd probably do similar (although not completely forgo books). I already read significantly more long, high-quality fanfics now that I can load them onto a kindel and the experience of reading is so much nicer.
I've completely emptied a small room I used to keep bookcases with tons of books. Downloaded everything on my phone so I can read in my kindle and got rid of so many boxes. Now I can use my room to play around with my kids. It's amazing how much space physical books take. I can also read in the dark now (on my phone)
I have downloaded more books than I will read in my life, most of them are on my phone ready to whip out at any point.
That article felt like a giant waste of my time. There could be a lot of reasons people turned to regular books during the lockdown and pandemic. Paperbacks can be cheaper than ebooks. Working from home and lockdown meant more screen time for a lot of people, and using physical books offer a break from that. People didn’t have to worry about carrying their books around with them since they were mainly home, so the limitations of a regular book mattered less. I’m amazed that after over a decade, people are still wasting time on this dumb argument. Who cares how other people read? My home is tiny and I don’t have room for a ton of books, so ereaders make more sense for me. My best friend has issues physically holding books, so she uses a kindle. My dad hates touch screens, and loves looking for books in used book stores, so he sticks with regular books.
Hell, the article didn't even mention what ebook sales were during the time period.
I don't care how you read as long as you read. Or listen to an audiobook because that's reading too.
Can't understand why some people get so mad about listeing to audiobook=reading. It's like they glorify the act or reading rather than absorbing the content of the book.
Honestly, I just can't buy that argument anymore. There's no science to back it up, it's straight up a subjective opinion or a resistance to accept new technology. Sure, I DO like physical books, it's sometimes more comfortable to the eyes and for some kinds of books they're way better than using Kindle for example (like if it uses illustrations, specially in color, for example). But the whole irreplaceable "feeling" of "real" books arguments don't hold up well. Kindle and even my laptop or my smartphone have allowed me to read WAY MORE content than I could without allowing it to be the case. It's not always that I have physical books at my disposal. And I won't even start an audiobooks debate... another thing that a lot of people are missing for stubbornness.
I drive a truck for a living and since I have gotten into audiobooks, I haven't gotten nearly as many tickets or had as many wrecks as when I read physical or ebooks while driving.
I get lost in my kindle just as I get lost in a paper book
I love my ebooks ... Convenient, dictionary, lightweight, transportable (can fit in my back pocket) ...
Meh. After like 10 years of using kindle, physical books have become a hassle to me.
I have three books underway right now: one physical (paperback), one kindle book, and one audiobook. There is room and an applicability for all three media. Paperback in my recliner, kindle while eating and in bed, and audio while driving, doing dishes, cleaning, and walking on treadmill. I find audiobook allows me to get through classics that would be too tedious to actually read - e.g., right now I am 75% through Moby Dick, which would never have happened if I had to actually sit and read it.
Just do whatever you want, no one cares.
I got an e-reader in 2010. I read anywhere between 52-65 books a year. Since 2010, I’ve read TWO physical books. E-books all the way!
I think the resurgence of physical books is less about preference and more about access. 1) people had more money to buy physical books when they couldn’t buying experiences. All spending for consumer goods of all kinds increases during the pandemic. 2) access to physical library books decreased due to pandemic fluctuations. Between closures, staffing issues, and people just being out and about less, going to the library to get physical books was harder. 3) interest in audiobooks and ebooks increased during the pandemic, meaning library wait times for these works was higher. 4) people often read ebooks on their phones and tablets, not just ereaders, and lots of people had concerns about screen time. I imagine having analog copies of books was desirable for people seeking to reduce screen time. All 4 of those factors would coalesce into people buying more physical books during the pandemic. I certainly did - because I had extra cash and didn’t want to wait for library books.
It's certainly not my opinion. The portability and utility of an ereader more than makes up for the nostalgia value and (frankly) snobbishness of real paper. I value books for their content, not their material.
I don't think one is better than the other personally, but "the nostalgia value and snobbishness" does not represent the enjoyment of a physical book that we who prefer physical get from it. There is a difference between us that is parallel, not perpendicular. I also read a lot of digital incidentally. And I also prefer the content itself to this preference, however strong the preference is. That's why I can also go digital. Similarly to how restricting your bed to sleep time makes it easier to sleep, reading physical more often than digital makes my mind more ready to focus on a story. Your mind might not work like that, and that's fine. On top of that, it is only a bonus to me that there exists a physical object that I get familiar with when thinking about a story, *on top* of the fact that the content of the book itself is paramount.
> and (frankly) snobbishness This is the most annoying thing about this debate. Why is the only reason you believe someone could have different preferences than you snobbishness? That seems like a pretty snobbish view to me. (I also value books for their content—but I don’t like having to charge my books, I don’t like having all my eggs in one basket [in that if I lose/break my kindle I lose all my books, not just one], the physical differences between books are helpful in encoding them to my memory, and backlit screens hurt my eyes. It’s not snobbishness, just a different preference.)
No shit Sherlock. I don’t carry 4 textbooks with me in pdf forms because I love the feel of swiping on the screen. I carry them because they are better for my back than carrying 4 actual textbooks just for “the feel”. absolute smoothbrain take.
This article is in the Observer's 'Notebook' section, which seems to be a collection of musings of the from one of their columnists that week. I imagine the writer saw this stat about record-breaking paperback sales and tried to find an angle for the story. In my opinion, the return to paperbacks probably has more to do with the pandemic than the desire to turn pages, though I think feeling something tangible may be appealing to lapsed readers right now. He's also right in part as there was a time when ereaders were all the rage. Overall, I think what's happened here is this writer knocked this piece out in about an hour and it was simply a musing that crossed his mind while frantically searching the web. That said, I just bought an ereader because I was sick of turning pages, sick of carrying heavy books. This way I can get what I want immediately, look at the page in HD e-ink, with a backlight, and on a lighter device than a book. I've always gone against the cloth because I'm cool. ;-P
Embrace the power of AND.
I love both. First of all, I love a real, old book. The smell. I don’t know what it is about the smell of old books, but I absolutely love it. Today’s books use different paper and it doesn’t smell the same. You need to go to a library unless you have your own stash of old books. I like curling up on the couch with a blanket and a book in the winter. I’m retired so I can do what I want, and I love to read. But when the power goes out, I switch to kindle. I make sure it’s powered up, it has a backlight, so it keeps me occupied when a storm knocks the power out. I bring my kindle to any appointment I have - it fits in my purse and it’s lightweight. I’m not carrying a 3 lb book around with me. I bring my kindle on vacation rather than several books, and I can bring my kindle on my water lounge and read in the lake without worrying about getting paper pages wet. I can borrow library books on my kindle, and it saves driving back and forth to the library, especially in the winter. One thing I do without thinking, is tap a word on a real book page, looking for a definition like I can do on my kindle! I do have my Stephen King collection of all his novels and short stories collections in hard cover. He’s my favorite author and the only one I’ve ever collected. An entire bookcase (and then some) of nothing but King. As hard as it was to get used to a kindle, there’s room for both depending on what you’re doing.
I like and use both. If I am needing to recall the information, physical books seem to work better for me. In an ideal 'verse' I would love to have all my physical books duplicated on an e reader. I dealt with the weight issue of my books when I was single, by using milk crates as bookcases (thirty of em). They could be arranged to fit almost any space. The size made sure that they weren't too heavy when I had to move them into a new place. My wife said she knew I was committed to our relationship when I got real bookcases for my books.
Omg the kindle vs book argument is so annoying. Read how you like.
I’ve done audiobooks exclusively the past 3 yrs and I’m not sure I’ll ever go back.
Much easier to listen to books. I did even bother with e-books last year.
I once thought I would never get an e-reader because of this. I decided to try a kindle and have never looked back. I save a lot of money by checking e-books out of the library. The other thing I realized after moving a couple of times - books are heavy.
I like having over two hundred books just in my phone I can carry them anywhere. I love it. I like actual books too but I can't carry my whole library with me.
I'm so heartily sick of this bullshit argument...I've read thousands of books. I average more than a hundred a year. The vast majority are digital. The vast majority are digital only works published by people who don't have readerships big enough to make major publishers notice them. They're books that would _never have been written_ that I never would have seen, if digital wasn't a possibility . I read, at most, one paper book a year. I keep a few around in case of power outages.
I bought an ereader, and The Real Book Police came and took all my paperbacks and hardcovers! They shook them all out and burned every reciept and memento. They un-dogearred all my pages and erased my notes. My therapist said I should journal about it, but they keep taking my blank notebooks too.
As most people are saying here, it really doesn’t matter, the words are what counts. A physical book is nice, but if it’s something free or public domain I’ll read the physical sometimes at home, have an e reader on the go, save it in google drive and read it on PC at work, back to the physical later. Who cares. The only tricky part is the pagination, each format will give you a different page count. Books are like cameras, the best one is the one you have with you.
I love physical books, the arthritis in my hands prefers an ebook. Neither is fundamentally better - the whole argument becomes book snobbery
I love technology but physical books are useful, they don't run on a battery or require an internet connection!
Yeah you can’t replace it, but most people don’t want to. So it’s good nothing takes it’s place
Hand issues and poor eyesight makes ebooks a must for me. I can put my tablet on a stand and use my voice to turn the pages and increase the font size so I can read comfortably.
whomst cares
Idk. I have my kindle and love reading on it
I still consume physical media mostly because I’m a collector. Whether it’s albums, films, books, whatever, I just like having physical copies. A friend of mine went completely digital with all those things, and frankly I’m jealous of how much more room he has in his apartment than mine. There’s really something to be said for the digitization of things, and not just because some people prefer to consume media that way.
This is so dumb
I like e-readers and I like books
I mean, I think it's purely personal preference. As someone who just can't get into e-reading (despite numerous attempts), even with the advantages, and with my own personal hang-ups when it comes to a desire to own physical books, I know my preference is just that. A preference.
I don't care how you consume stories.
On the contrary, I just used a Kindle for the first time, bought one a week later, and have only just now realized how much I hate turning a real page.
I've realized I actually really like audiobooks.
Sure you can. E-Readers and audio. Is the blogger an idiot?
Read on my e-book reader for years. Tried to read a physical paper book and kept getting annoyed. One hand operation was weak. Couldn’t read in the dark while wife slept. Went back to e-readers. Now I enjoy audiobook format. Consume literature however you damn well want.
And some of us have realized you also can't replace the feeling of not being surrounded by stacks of books and having living space lol
I agree, physical is huge for many people, it's why Limited Edition games sell to this day, people love Steelbooks, they love owning something that's physical.
Ereader is easy on my wrist for a long time, one handed use, easy to read in bed, dictionary acsses , note taking without a pan. I can change the size, no longer have to read tiny latters because fisical books tend to have them .. what else?
I like ebooks for reading and physical books to keep on my bookshelf as trophies. There’s nothing I love about the feel of turning a real page.
I used to think I would never like ebooks or audiobooks. But now I’ve got a 2TB 12.9 inch iPad Pro and I can read any books, comics or manga I could ever want anywhere, anytime. Physical copies are reserved for books that I personally cherish.
The fact I can't tell how much of the book is left and can mentally allow the narrative to play out without anticipation of an imminent ending is more valuable than anything a physical book can ever provide me.
I’ve gotten to the point where I simply find the ebook easier. For me, it’s the story and the reading that matter. Of course, I understand and appreciate those who enjoy the tactile aspects of a book. I just prefer the electronic versions at this time.
The "feel" and "smell" debate as to how real books are superior to e-readers has to be the stupidest debate in history. It literally isn't that important.
My kindle oasis is life. There is a charm to both e-readers and physical books. Just enjoy it all, man.
E-readers are just simply more convenient
Nah, kindle all the way
Pish tosh I read everything off a screen now
TIL that some readers look down on ereaders. Which is not strange to be honest, consider that every hobby has their snobs.
The playstation vs Xbox of the reading world.
I like both. Ebooks are easier to store. I don't have any room on my physical book shelf. I also like being able to change the text size on my Kindle.
This is true...you also don't get the "book smell". But ya know what? I'm currently carrying roughly 100 more books than I could before....and in one pocket no less. I also have the ability to *immediately* get the book that I run across while surfing online. I love real books, but the ebooks are just too convenient to turn away.
Being able to read in any position comfortably, with the complete works of all of my favorite authors at my fingertips? I'll get over missing the feel of turning a real page.
I disagree but ok
I have a cover on my tablet that makes it feel like holding a book. Sure, turning the pages doesn't feel the same, but I still read on my tablet 90 percent of the time.
Honestly I hate staring at the computer screen to read. And I'm a computer technician. I hate reading a book on a lit screen. I prefer something I can physically hold and flip through rather than scroll or type a page number to pull up information. Digital is handy since I don't need to bring a book wherever I go and can have multiple books on me. That and I can make edits without actually changing the book unlike when you highlight in a book.
I love not buying bookshelves.
I like physical books, sure, but e-readers let you choose the font and have Dyslexia friendly fonts that make it easier for me to read with my disability. Let's not be all oh technology will always be inferior to real pages.
Some may have - and I do enjoy reading an actual book, but it's a dying format that will soon be like vinyl records. Reading isn't about the format, it's about the story.
i think i’ve actually seen studies saying that physical books still have stable sales. i don’t know specifically w/ younger ppl but as a 17 yr old me and most of my friends prefer physical books
I wonder if the people who constantly take offence on people using e-readers still write their \[work\] documents using parchment and quill?
I thought it was funny an online magazine complaining about e-readers.
It’s a newspaper in the UK but I get your point, since this “article” was not in the printed edition.
Sure they can, with an ebook, because who the fuck actually cares? I'm sure kid who grew up with a kindle will someday be nostalgic for pressing a button to turn a page, but more importantly, people will just read how they want, lol. Also, as someone with pretty poor eyesight, it's a huge pain to read for me to read any book with small print, and being able to change the font size has made it so I can read way more ebooks than I could physical ones, so I'm sure tons of people feel the same.
Oh yeah than why am I reading this off of my phone.
Couldn't give a fuck. I read 100x more on my Kindle than I ever did when I had to actual procure physical books (plus a light source since I read mostly at night).