Books Or E Books?

This is the question that comes up often when avid readers meet. Are e books better than real books? Some people say adamantly, 'Yes!', while others firmly say 'No.' There are some who like both but these people usually back out of the conversation after it turns into an argument. And turn into an argument it must because readers are very serious about their books. Even among the readers of real books there is a division where some refuse to read anything that is not in hard cover and despise those who would dare to read the likes of a cheap looking paper back. The paper back lovers think that those who insist on hard covers are simply 'book snobs' in return.

Reading E Books does cause you, the reader, to have some advantages:

• You can have an entire library literally at your fingertips.

Boasting that you have over a thousand books and you can hold them with one hand is awfully convenient and a quite pleasing thought.

• You can purchase books without ever leaving the house and get those books in the blink of an eye.

With an E- Reader all you have to do is think which book you'd like and with the touch of a screen and a cha-ching of your credit card, it is in your hand (or on your tablet) in a matter of seconds.

• E books come with their own glowing screen so that you never have to squint or worry about it getting so dark that you cannot read.

• Some E books are free. What is better than free?!

• The minute a book is released you can read it.

The convenience of an E Reader is the fact that you can get the most awaited book the minute it is released and finish it that afternoon if you so wish it. You can be the first to have the book that everybody wants to read and you don't have to stand in line to wait for it either.

• E books are environmentally friendly because the paper is virtual. Yay! Environment!

But the readers of real books, you know the books made out of paper think that these advantages, though true, do not hold any weight against the argument for real books.

“If you take a book with you on a journey," Mo had said when he put the first one in her box, "an odd thing happens: The book begins collecting your memories. And forever after you have only to open that book to be back where you first read it. It will all come into your mind with the very first words: the sights you saw in that place, what it smelled like, the ice cream you ate while you were reading it... yes, books are like flypaper—memories cling to the printed page better than anything else.”

Cornelia Funke - Inkheart

Readers of Real books have some very strong arguments as to why the real book must live on and those who would push it out of its existence should think twice about it.

• Real books can get wet and still survive.

Remember that library of a thousand books that you can hold in your hand with one E- Reader? Well, one good dose of water and that E- Reader and all of those lovely books are destroyed and are unreadable. If a real book gets wet, the print can still be read and if it is put out in the sun to dry, it gets fatter but it is still the same book.

• Real books can fall, be thrown, be kicked, and be used to prop up night stands or a broken table and be dusted off and read again.

If you decide to throw you Kindle or Nook across the room or some random child decides to play football with it that is the end of the Kindle or Nook, but if the same is done with a real book, maybe the binding might suffer but you can still pick it up or read it. Hey, I have read books with footprints on them and they were still in one piece!

• If the pages fall out of a real book, they can be stuck back together or you can just read the rest of the book without reading the missing gap.

With E- books, if the download does not complete, can you still read part of the book?

Seriously, I do not know - anyone with an E-Reader please let me know about this in the comments section.

• A real book smells good.
  

Some books have an old smell and some have a new smell. Some can smell like a country you have visited and others smell like the diner you like to visit often. E books have no smell.

• A real book can be autographed by the author or can have an inscription written in it by someone special.

• A real book can become a collectible item that could be worth millions.
  

When real books are old, their value can increase but E-books are just virtual. If you go to a garage sale and you happen to stumble on an old book written by Charles Dickens and it costs only one dollar. It is possible that that one dollar book you bought in that sale is worth a fortune. If you buy a Dickens E-Book it is just that - a Dickens E-book.

• Although a real book does not glow, it never ever runs out of power. A real book does not have a battery that can die.

Real books can keep going and going like the Engergizer battery because they are not powered by batteries. If it gets dark, all you have to do to read is turn on a light!

• Real books hold memories better than E Books.

When reading a real book, all the sights and sounds around you, the food that you eat while you read, the places you visit, gets caught in the book and when you read the real book again, you re-visit your memories as well. A real book becomes more than a real book when you read it again.

As technology progresses, there is no doubt in the mind of many, that the real book will cease to exist soon and the world will soon become a paperless world. For some, this is a dream come true while for others, it is a nightmare that they would rather not live to see. Paper and ink, it seems, manages to hold far more of the essence of man, after all.

The question, 'Are E books better than real books?' cannot decidedly be answered. It all lies in the opinion of the reader. It is clear that once all readers have a choice, they will be happy to choose the form in which to read their beloved books. Perhaps it is the fact that someday that preference may be taken away from them, causes some to look at the E book and E Reader with hostility.

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