Set your hardbacks and tablets down for a moment. I know what you are thinking.
“Is he really going down this road?”
The answer is yes. Yes I am.
The past few weeks, I’ve been struggling on deciding which platform I wanted to buy into. I’ve recently just gotten back into reading and have been enjoying it immensely. Yeah, knowledge! However, I feel like I’ve come face to face with the ultimate question.
Paper books vs ebooks — which do you prefer?
For Paper Books
1. You can lend/give a paper book to a friend.
This is perhaps one of the most obvious reasons people buy paper books instead of their e-counterpart. For example, I just recently finished reading All In by Mark Batterson. If a friend came up to me and asked me if I had anything that could help challenge his faith because he felt dry, I could just give him the book. No DRM to worry about. No Publisher restrictions. Done and done. That was easy right?
Now, I know that the Amazon/Kindle platform has one of the most robust ebook systems to date. I also know about the Kindle Lending Library. For those of you who don’t know, it allows you to lend out one of your ebooks to anyone with an email address. (Provided of course you bought the ebook from Amazon). This is a very cool feature. However, it only allows you to lend it out for 14 days. During those days, you cannot access your ebook, and only your friend can. After those 14 days are up, it returns it to you. While this is pretty neat, the downside is that you only have 14 days for your friend to read the book.
Since I already brought up Amazon, I’ll keep picking on them a little bit. With a paper book, you can freely give it away to someone after you have read it. If you buy into the Kindle platform, after you have purchased a Kindle book it is tied to your account. You cannot give it away. Yes, you can purchase and extra copy for someone else if you really want to gift it, but if you want to give away the copy you already bought, it is not possible.
2. You Don’t Have Media Distractions.
I have a nexus 7 tablet and I love it. I use it primarily for media consumption. However, since it is a tablet, it offers a lot more than just a simple e-reader device would. I can easily get distracted and hop onto Facebook. I might play some Pixel Dungeon or even pop on a movie. Because of these things, it is very easily to get distracted from your books.
With paper books, it feels so nice to unplug for a while and just dig into a good book. As Church techs, we can consume so much screen time, that after a while we just get burnt out. Reading a paper book can help give you that outlet from your normal tech. Its not only freeing, but refreshing as well.
For eBooks
1. Reading after dark.
The time where I personally get the majority of my reading in, is in bed at night after my wife has gone to sleep. She can’t sleep with any lights on, so in order to not disturb her, using my tablet to read is fantastic. I can cruise through the pages without disturbing her. I also find it much easier to read in bed with a tablet. I can use the Moon+ Reader app for my Nexus 7 and set it to automatically scroll. So if I am laying on my side I don’t even need to move my hands to turn the page. This is extremely convenient.
2. A library in your pocket.
How amazing is it that this day in age we’re able to carry an entire library worth of books in our pocket? Our access to books in 2014 is unprecedented. You can be waiting for the subway and decide you want to catch up on that latest bestseller. Boom. Done. You can be out in southeast Asia somewhere, and decide you actually do want to buy that cookbook. Boom. Done. We can literally carry thousands of books on our mobile phones or tablets if want. That is pretty incredible.
The other nice thing about keeping your library digital is that if you highlight passages, (at least within the Kindle app) all of your notes and highlights are synced. This is a big deal for me because I like to take lots of notes when I read.
Why Not Both?
There are always going to be those hardcore book nerds (I can say that because I’m one of them) that love the smell and feel of a real paper book. For them, it is the only true way to get immersed in the text and really take hold of the story. Then there are those on the other side of the spectrum who are pushing for technology to move forth through e-books. They are loving the fact that they don’t have books cluttering their houses and can carry a vast amount of them in their pocket.
Why don’t we meet in the middle? Let’s end the debate about which “format” is better. If you want to read a paper book, then do it! If you want to read the e-book version, then do it!
Generally, I’ll buy the e-book version of the book. I find that the convenience of the e-book outweighs the smell and feel of a real book. I especially like to buy the e-book versions when the books are really long. If I end up really enjoying the book or I could see myself gifting it to a friend, then I’ll buy the paper version after that to keep on my bookshelf. This way, I conveniently weed out books that I wouldn’t want taking up clutter around my house.
Kindle Matchbook
Amazon currently has a service called Kindle Matchbook. Basically, they take paper books that you have bought, and offer the kindle version of them for .99, 1.99, and 2.99 respectively. Even though this is only for select titles, I’ve found that many of my books have qualified for it. 9 /10 times I will go this route. I love having both version right off the bat. I can immediately start reading the book while I wait for the paper one to ship to me. Plus, what is an extra buck or two to get both?
What are your thoughts on paper books vs e-books?
Jeremy Smith says
I am 99% eBooks and audiobooks now. Apartments, moving three times in five years, and an infant in the house makes electronic books HIGHLY valuable for me.
Casey Dierking says
That makes total sense. When I was younger, we moved around a lot. We had bookcases after bookcases of books to move.
Eric Dye says
I’ve experienced the same thing. Each time we move, we have less books. Not because we get rid of them altogether, but because we replace them with e-versions. AND here in Italy, we fight moisture a lot, so we’ve had some books mold or go bad. :-/
Eric J says
I prefer Hard Backs to Paper Backs most of the time, we own and iPad and not a Kindle or an e-reader so one problem for me is that i get distracted when i try to read a book on the iPad as compared to the physical copy.
One thing i really like about e-Books is that you can increase the fontsize and it is usually lighter than a book and if you lay on your side while you read which is much more convenient!
Casey Dierking says
I always have toe et the auto rotation to locked when I’m using a tablet and reading an ebook. Being able to easily read on your side is nice. 🙂
Steven Gliebe says
I prefer a good old fashioned printed book. I looked into e-readers because they’re not dusty but I wasn’t able to find half of the books I wanted to read. Maybe later but only with an e-reader that doesn’t have a browser, because that’s not the point.
Casey Dierking says
I’m sure over the next few years as they become more popular, the majority of books will be available in eBook format.
Adam Shields says
I don’t really consider the ipad an ereader. It is a tablet that you can also read on. Ereaders are eink devices that only work as an ereader. No detractions, Paperwhite and Nook Glow and others have a light that is much better on the eyes than the LCD screens of ipad or Android tablets.
Also, there are three types of lending in the kindle system. There is the ability to loan a book once to another kindle users. This is a publisher’s choice and in my library about 1/3 of books are lendable. I use Lendle.me as source to find books to borrow and to lend to others. I have loaned nearly 400 boos via Lendle.me
The second type of lending is library lending. You can borrow a book from your library using the amazon system.
The third type of lending is the Kindle Lending Library. People that subscribe to Amazon Prime can borrow one book a month and keep it as long as you want until you want to borrow the next book. About 100,000 (mostly independent authors, but not all.)
______
I am almost completely ebook only.
On the ebook side, Amazon (and to a lesser extent other platforms) give away ebooks as promotions. I post 4 to 15 free Christian Kindle books pretty much every day. Certainly not all are worth reading. But you can easily find 25-50 free books a year worth reading without even using lending.
Casey Dierking says
One thing though with the Kindle Lending Library. After looking into it, I realized that to take advantage of being able to borrow one book each month, you have to own an actual kindle. So while I have a tablet with the kindle app, I don’t qualify for it. Kind of a bummer for me, but awesome for those that do have kindles.
You do make a great point about being able to find many free books digitally. On the other side of that, it also provides a way for many authors to get their stuff out there inexpensively.
Great stuff!
Eric Dye says
When I saw this post I KNEW you would weigh in on this Adam! 😛
Love your passion. 🙂
Adam Shields says
I am obsessed Eric. I admit it 🙂
Here is my list of pros and cons:
Pro
-Light, I like long books, but a kindle is way lighter. Also why I don’t like using an ipad to read.
-Adjustable fonts – as I keep moving on the other side of 40 being able to change the font makes a difference
-Properly Lighted – Kindle Paperwhite and Nook Glo have invisible thread of light that shine down not up into your eyes. This is less straining than an LCD screen but still provides light for reading at night without having a lamp.
-Availability – yes there are still books you can’t get on kindle, but they are pretty few at this point. What is better about availability is that I can get literally millions of books now from amazon or other ebook stores in seconds
-Price – ebooks are cheaper than paper. Yes some are still over priced. But there are also tons that are free. I spend a lot on books. But in the 6 years I have had a kindle I have aquired over 5000 kindle books for far less than an average of a $1 a book. No I have not read them all. But…
-Account Sharing – this is perfectly acceptable in Amazon’s world, although there are limits on some books about the number of devices that a book can be loaded onto at one time. I have eink devices and more iphones and ipads, that are on my account. My parents, brothers, some missionary friends that live in France, etc. Many of the books I pick up for free I won’t ever read, but someone in the group will. The negative is that one credit card has to pay for everything, so you have to work out cost sharing.
-Reading Tools – the ability to get a dictionary by touching the word is great. I have a good vocabulary, but without an in-device dictionary, I just roughly get the meaning from context and move on. With a kindle dictionary I actually look it up. Similarly Wikipedia isn’t perfect for everything, but I can look up names and places and events straight from the kindle just by touching a word or phrase. Translation is not perfect, but again, without it on kindle I would just skip it. Highlighting not only allows me to find that passage again quickly (because the navigation points back to all highlights or notes), but it save all highlights to kindle.amazon.com and I can cut and paste those sections into my book reviews. Search is also useful. I know that ebooks loose visual memory of where something was in a book, but search for most tasks is actually better and more thorough. error reporting – I really don’t know how much publishers use this, but lots of books have errors (paper and ebook although ebooks tend to have more independent authors which have more errors). It is easy to highlight and hit ‘report content error’ and you can give details about mis-spelled words, factual problems, grammar, wrong word usage, OCR problems, etc. I don’t do it a ton, but I do it occasionally.
-Cool factor. This is not for me, but I have found especially reluctant reader pre-teen and teen boys will read on a kindle and be excited about it more than paper. Not universally true, but it can make a difference. And the smaller screen size of eink devices and large font have been shown to help with dyslexia and ADHA readers
-Device syncing – I am a big fan of audiobooks. A lot of books I am buying now you can start on the audiobook, switch to the kindle book and then back to the audiobook and never lose your place or have to search for where you are. That does require that you own both the audiobook and the kindle book, but for many books it is cheaper to buy the kindle book and then add the audiobook (often at a discount) than the just buy the audiobook by itself.
Cons:
-has a battery. It lasts 6-8 weeks at a time, but still has a battery
-the device costs. You have up front cost in addition to the per book cost
-they break. I have broken a number of kindles, but I buy insurance and the manufacturer warranty means that those are replaced
-Can not physically share a book
-Lending a book is limited to 14 day for person to person borrowing, which is not enough for many books to be finished
-companies can go out of business and you could lose access to your books
-DRM – it can be circumvented but it is a pain
-bookshelves – I don’t have any book shelves in my house (I have one in the basement, but no display shelves.) I really love perusing people’s books shelves to see what they read and what I have read. That is lost in the ebook world. There is online shelves like goodreads.com, but that is not nearly the same.
-Holding a book – I do not have a great love of holding or smelling a book. But many people do
Overall, it does come down to what you love. Some people try ebook readers and don’t like them. Many are very resistant to ebooks but then find once they try them that they love the convenience.
Eric Dye says
Adam! That’s a whole blog post!!!! LOL! 😀
Adam Shields says
Can’t let a chance to evangelize pass 🙂
Eric Dye says
LOL!
Ben Boles says
For the price, ebooks are a win. My Kindle is full of free and $2.99 books. But after trying an ebook out during a research paper and now a book I am about to teach out of, they are not made for that realm yet. I like to flip back and forth between pages to reference or line up thoughts and you just can’t easily do that on an ebook reader. Now I will say they up side to Kindle highlights is they are all there in your account for you to easily go back to which can be helpful after you’ve read a book.
All that to say I still buy both.
KC says
I like both, but I tend to read more often if it’s on a tablet. Just easier to have around and pick up. Although, I like the ability to share a paper book with a friend as well.
Don’t think paper books will ever completely die off and I hope they don’t. There is something about holding a paper book in your hands and smelling the pages of a new book you pick up at Barnes & Noble.
However, my digital and wooden bookshelves are overflowing with titles I have yet to read.