Books vs Ebooks: Pros and Cons?

I hope you too like the crisp sound and the pleasant fragrance of the pages of a newly bought book. While some book-lovers take pains to prevent the books from developing folded corners, some others design their own creative bookmarks for personal use. There are many others who are voracious readers whose hunger for books never seems to dip!

The Feel:

Well the feel of paper is one reason. You just cannot have that human-like experience in a digital form of a book. Everything seems monotonous in the latter.

The Suspense:

While reading books, the suspense of the story goes on increasing with every page flipped and you can predict where exactly you are just by looking at the number of pages on the right and left sides of the book. I personally had this habit (now I have managed to control the same) of looking at how many more pages are left and sometimes used to even peep into the climax out of desperation to know the end result!

The Visual Appeal:

Some books have lots of pictures and illustrations which make for a more interesting experience. A picture is worth a thousand words and many a times we can predict the content purely based on the pictures.

You can Donate books:

When you have completely read a book and no longer need it, you can donate the book to someone else. In this way you can provide happiness to someone.

You can have more Interactions:

It is a common thing among friends or siblings to share their books. This also leads to increased bonding among them. There are numerous book lover's clubs which organise events wherein totally unfamiliar people meet to share their thoughts on a particular book or author. Thus you get to know some more real friends who share your passion.

More retention:

In a study, it was discovered that people tend to remember more from books than from E-readers like Kindle. They have suggested that in a book you can feel the exact number of pages that are left (or the ones that you have read) and hence you can make a subconscious note of the same in your brain.

I have personally felt this: Many a times when I try to remember some concept from my engineering reference book, I start imagining the following things:

• The chapter.
• If the answer was on the right or the left side of the book.
• If there was some picture above or below the text.

Bookmarking:

As I mentioned earlier, there are people of the creative bent of mind who move a step ahead of reading. They make their own bookmarks!

Ease of carrying Ebooks:

A single e-reader is all that you need.

Also it is quite cumbersome to carry those big and popular books in public places and public transport like buses where a handheld device is more preferable. People have this habit of looking at what others read so an ebook at least saves you from the cover of the book getting exposed in case you are reading something that is uncomfortable to be read in public.

Additional extensions:

There are built-in features like text-to-speech conversion, automatic reading mode wherein you can even control the speed at which you read, highlighting and with more advanced readers you can even a more interactive experience. Moreover you can undo any highlighting that you have made previously. You can even comment (add a note) on some text like if you know something more about a word you can put it in the comment and save it for further reference.

You can search for words in an ebook and that is what I love about them. Unlike in books, where you will have to scan through the index or the appendix to find something.

A Lot of Paper is saved:

Just imagine the amount of paper that is saved because of ebooks and we keep on complaining about deforestation!

Robust and durable:

Ebooks can be kept for longer than their book counterparts because they are not easily damaged. Another reason is that they do not occupy space.

Less costly:

Ebooks are less costly and many of those classics are available for free. That implies you can read more with less efforts and save money too

Easy to find meanings:

You can always connect an external dictionary meant for Ebook readers or many of them have built-in dictionaries. The advantage is that you do not have to carry that extra burden in case you are reading a normal English text. Just tap on the word and it will display you the meaning then and there itself. Scientific and technical books will still require physical dictionaries.

Auto-save:

E-readers automatically save the last piece of text that you had read before closing. So no need of using techniques like folding the corner of the book or putting a bookmark in it.

• Ebooks cannot be shared as easily as books because there are restrictions on the reuse of an ebook.
• Publishing books takes time but publishing ebooks is easier with all the advanced technology at your disposal.
• Finding books of foreign languages or foreign books in native languages is difficult unless a translation exists and the book is very popular.
• Good ebook websites are easier to browse through than commuting to quality bookstores.
• Ebooks can distract you if you have access to Internet along with it because you tend to waste more time on the websites and spend less time on the reading. Continuous reading is on the fall because of this. Attention spans are reducing overall.
• A bad ebook reader can do more harm to you and your eyes than a single bad book and it is difficult to change the reader as easily as you change books. Choosing a good e-reader is the most important step while reading ebooks.
• Libraries do have more books but there are limitations on the time for which we can keep the books with us. Even for reading in a library there are rules which have to be followed.
• E-waste too is a big problem but it would not be as much because one e-reader will last longer than a book or several books.

" You can use your book as a hand fan when there is no electricity but you cannot do it with an e-reader "

I have listed down the key points in a tabular form for your convenience. Please have a look at it.

I might have missed out many points of comparison while writing this hub. If you notice any worthy point not in the list, please share it in the comments section below. Let the list grow till no more point of comparison is left.

Well, I cannot say whether books will survive or e-books will take over the business in the near future. All I can say is readers will continue to read no matter which form the matter is presented in! Content is King after all!