eBooks vs Paperbooks

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Don't get me wrong, I spend a lot of time staring at a computer screen. I love computers. They talk to me in a way neither radio nor TV ever managed to do. Until they became available online, I did not read newspapers, due to their 'unwieldyness'. The easy availability and range of choice of eBooks is staggering. No longer do we have to carry heavy book bags, pick our reading sign off the floor and wonder whether we'll ever find the place again which the sign so carelessly abandoned . . .
However.
Going to a library (one that has not yet become a 'Community Centre', with noise levels in the damaging range), choosing books, racing home as I can't wait to unpack my treasure, laying them all out in front of me, carefully choosing the one to start with, knowing the rest of them are waiting to be read later . . . Bliss!! !
Anyone else out there with this odd attachment to paper?

I think that's true for most people, all the people I ever knew who read books don't dare pick up a kindle. I prefer audiobooks, but it's because I'm a truck driver. It makes my life a lot easier.

I have a kindle I got as a hand me down from a family member. It's a 1st gen. It's ok. But I don't like the user interface. If my hand spasms and presses the next page button or the menu button, sometimes I can skip 2 or more pages or end up out of the book depending on how I hold when I'm trying to be comfortable. My hand spasms enough that this is a problem.

There are a few websites I read stories at online. Mostly through my phone or laptop. I don't mind it but looking at the screen can hurt my eyes after a while.

Overall I prefer books. I have probably almost a thousand books. Right now they're packed away because I'm moving, but I prefer a paperback. They're much easier to read for me.

Truthfully I enjoy both, but I will never give up my paperback books. However the Kindle has some positives too. S=An example is it allows you to read in the dark, it's lighter, and you can store plenty of books within it. I feel the disadvantages ofr the Kindle is not enough battery time, and that if yoiu don't touch the screen every few seconds it goes on sleep mode. Another disadvantage of the newer Kindle's is that the internet, music and other apps can be very distracting. Paper or had cover books don't allow you to be distracted by the internet, music or other apps. These are where paperback has its advantages.

That's also a problem for me, my eyes find reading from a book much more relaxing 😊.



Wow, a thousand books! I only have a few hundred as we have moved so many times (my family writes our address in pencil!) and I always donated most books to a school or Secondhand Bookstore.

I have never had a Kindle - isn't there a setting where you can prevent it from going to sleep, ever?
But then again, going to sleep as a reminder that going to sleep is an option to be considered sometime after midnight . . .

Never read an eBook in my life. I stick to paper.

I've got a cheap Android tablet with the Kindle app on it. Its great. I read lots of books with it now. It also has a dictionary feature, which is very handy because I'm practising my French by reading French novels - just hold my finger on a word to get a definition (in French) for it. I've set the screen sleep to 5 minutes which means it never turns itself off while I'm actually using it.

I also like paper based books and always take one with me when going anywhere that I may have to hang around waiting e.g. doctors waiting rooms.

me! it's the way they smell--and the older the books, the better they smell, imo.

a while back, when the final book of the dark tower series came out (which i had been waiting for since i had read the gunslinger for the first time around the age of 11-12) i got my hands on an advance e-copy because i couldn't wait for (and wouldn't be able to afford) the hardcover when it first came out. i sat at my computer (at the time--and to this day--i had no other devices to read it on) for about 36 hrs straight (taking a couple short breaks to make tea and a snack) until i finished it. my god, did i have awful headaches for the next week--but in that instance, it was worth. for any other book, however, i would wait til i could purchase a physical book i could hold in my hands. it's a sentimental thing, not a rational thing--i'm an environmentalist and i feel guilty about the trees that are killed to make the books i like to read, yet i can't give them up.

i also have a horrible habit of marking up my most loved books--underlining important passages, writing notes in the margins, etc.

and i crack the spines of all the paperbacks i read, too; i just can't help myself. and i will reread certain books until they literally fall apart and i need to buy a new copy--LOTR, i'm speaking of you here: i bought a paperback edition of all the entire trilogy with all the appendices in college that is just about ready to give up the ghost; it's been dropped in the tub, had tea spilled all over it, been ripped, cracked until sections fall out, and is dog-eared all to hell. THAT is evidence of a well-loved book.

I am from Yorkshire so I get what ever costs the least.

When it comes to fiction, I read on whatever format is the cheapest.
I have tons of free public domain ebooks on my kindle--stuff from Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Mark Twain, etc.

However, when I'm studying a text, I want paper. I love to highlight, underline and annotate....

Robert E. Howard!

i've been rummaging through used books stores since i was little--how is it that used book stores can smell so good and used clothing stores can smell so not-good?

I am with you there, and it's not for want of trying! Just can't get the "feel" for it.

Now that's clever, I shall give that a go 😊

So am I, consequently I either get books from the library or from a second-hand shop.


Oh isn't it just