Recently, I’ve noticed myself reading E-books as opposed to real books since they offer many advantages.
Advantages of E-books
- Searchable
Quickly go to a section or find a certain word/phrase instead of flipping through tons of pages. - Downloadable
You get instant access to an E-book once you download it, no need to drive to the store or wait for it to be delivered. - No physical size
You can just as easily hold millions of E-books on your handheld as you would a single real book. - Long term cost-savings
An E-book reading device (smartphone, pda, E-book reader, laptop) is an investment. They aren’t exactly cheap but E-books themselves are in general cheaper (sometimes free) compared to real books so the cost savings will add up over time.
Advantages of real books
- Tangibility
There’s just something about having a real book in your hand and physically flipping through the pages. I can’t explain it but it makes for a different experience. - Resale value
It’s possible to resell books for a large fraction of their original price whereas E-books usually don’t allow for resale (legally) or have virtually zero resale value. - Short term cost-savings
You won’t need an expensive gadget to read your books. - Showoff factor
Having a bookshelf full of big books lets you showoff to visitors exactly how educated and cultured you are.
- Easier on the eyes
Looking at a back lit LCD screen for a prolonged period of time can cause eyestrain. A real book offers an “unlimited” contrast with natural lighting (but then again, you can’t read a real book in the dark).
Armed with my trusty smartphone, I find myself reading (mostly computer books) whenever I have a short break. With hundreds of books at my disposal, I can easily switch from a Ruby book to a Sherlock Holmes novel on a whim. However, for academic textbooks and technical references, I still prefer having a hard copy to refer to.
Where to get E-books?
There are tons of free (legal) E-books out there if you know where to look. You can easily find a free E-book about almost every topic. Many of these aren’t written by professional writers and offer nothing more than a shallow coverage of a particular topic but nonetheless, you’ll be learning something! Sites like Gutenberg are a great resource for free E-books but be wary of free E-book sites that offer a lot of “spam” books promoting affiliate products though.
So which format do you prefer? E-books or real books (… or Wikipedia)? Anyone out there read E-books consistently over real books?
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