After the advent of e-books, the “paper” sisters were repeatedly foreshadowed by a quick death, but they diligently hold on to our emotional attachments and manipulate us cunningly. Squeezing printed books out of the world of literature was not so easy, but all because of the fact that many people prefer tactile contact with the object of reading. Nothing can be done – pure psychology! What will win: devotion or modernity, let’s figure it out in detail.
E-book: good or evil?
E-books have recently entered our everyday life and are gradually winning the love of buyers. From primitive push-button devices, they have gone all the way to stylish pocket gadgets with a wide range of functions. It is convenient to carry such a book, which means that it is enough to take it out of your pocket at any opportunity and immerse yourself in your favorite work!
Pros of an e-book
Among the unequivocal advantages of “readers” over printed books, the following can be noted:
- Weight and miniature dimensions. Compactness and lightness allow you to carry an e-book in a bag or even a pocket and not part with it, wherever you are. On the road or when moving, you do not need to drag heavy books with you – compact 400 g will replace many kilograms of waste paper.
- Autonomy. “Readers” are designed for long-term autonomy, so you do not need to save on the reading process and worry about battery consumption. Some models are able to work without recharging up to six months.
- Backlight. With the LED display, you can read even in the dark, adjusting the brightness to the external environment. In this case, cases with built-in flashlights will also come in handy, making reading carefree in any situation.
- Scale setting. Unlike paper books, when reading which we have to put up with the scale of the font and adapt to it, in the reader this complexity can be corrected with one click.
- Saving. To read the desired book, you do not need to spend a lot of money, because it can be downloaded absolutely free.
- Ecology. Every year, 15 billion trees are cut down for paper production, and this figure is growing every year. The popularization of e-books significantly reduces the flow of the paper industry and fosters a careful attitude to the planet’s resources.
- Versatility of use. If you prefer printed books for the convenience of taking notes, then a digital reader does just as well. There are a number of special formats adapted to active work with text.
Cons of an e-book
We have two news for you: good and bad. Good – the advantages of “readers” do not end there, bad – there are moments for which the scales tilt towards printed counterparts:
- Individuality. Perhaps the main reason why we love paper versions is tactile and figurative differences, which an e-book cannot boast of, representing all the works stored in it in one faceless stream.
- Unreliability. If we spill coffee on a printed manual, it has a chance of being saved, unlike an electronic one. Once the reader falls, the entire carefully collected archive can be irretrievably lost.
- Discomfort. If the presence of a flashlight and backlight in certain situations is a plus, then with prolonged reading, the strong contrast of a bright screen and a dark room can play a cruel joke.
- Extra time for usual activities. The process of turning over a digital page takes a second, which is longer than doing it manually. As a result, there is a “braking” with noticeable pauses, which at first can cause irritation.
Such native and beloved printed books
Have you ever walked around a bookstore for hours and couldn’t take your eyes off the colorful covers and alluring pictures? Not only children’s books are filled with artistic accompaniment, but also adult editions. The book printing company is working have long gone beyond the traditional content, mastering new forms of contact with the reader, where the image plays a major role. The smell is a separate reason for worship. Freshly printed pages or old, worn chapters that take you back to childhood serve as a special “fetish” for “book gourmets”.
Pros of paper books
The reasons why many are not ready to part with a paper book:
- The feeling of a book. The main and first point that makes you want to touch, look through, feel the aroma and shape, hold the product in your hands. Reading a real book, you live a part of life with it, get closer to the main characters.
- Design. Shelves of bookstores are full of creative art covers, which are a separate work of art. This is something that the electronic version cannot boast of.
- Assimilation of information. According to the research of psychologists, the material is deposited in our memory “in depth” precisely after reading the paper. Thanks to the full receipt of information, our brain forms everything into a single structure with characteristic “hooks”.
- Stimulation for reading. Passing every day by the home library, the hand will reach for an attractive tome that you want to leaf through, then catch on to interesting quotes and read two chapters without noticing. When an e-book is on the table, we do not feel attracted to it and put off reading “for later”.
- Loyalty for many years. Every piece of technology has a lifespan, so while a digital book can fail, fall, break, or break, good old editions can sit on the shelves for years and centuries, passed down from generation to generation.
- Collecting. Printed tomes can be collected, sorted by genre and writer, placed on bookshelves, enjoying the process and inspired by new ideas. Rare collector’s editions are not stored in electronic versions.
Cons of paper books
Each medal has a reverse side, so we rightly note the disadvantages of acquiring printed publications:
- Heavy weight and inconvenient to transport. The main disadvantage of living books is their heaviness. To move the entire home library from point A to point B, you will need dozens of boxes and a few helpers. It wastes energy, money and time to put the books, and then rearrange them again.
- They take up a lot of space. Under the books, it is necessary to allocate a significant corner, which reduces the space in the house, or even the whole room.
- Due attention. Books should be regularly dusted, ventilated, pick up covers for fragile, worn publications, and choose the right shelf layout.
- Inexpensive cost. You will have to spend money on good quality printed books from popular publications every time, laying out not always a “pocket” amount.
- Large cost of wood. From one large tree it is possible to make 17 books, which are published annually with a circulation of hundreds of thousands. This significantly consumes green resources and worsens the state of the environment.
Opinion from outside
To determine the final winner, we turned to our customers for help and asked their opinion. The side of the predominantly male audience turned out to be supporters of new technologies, paying tribute to portability, convenience of the font, and practicality. No less part of the buyers remained supporters of printed versions. “Opposition” noted the main reasons for the choice:
- beautiful covers;
- tactile contact;
- opportunity to donate.
But most buyers choose both types of books – each depending on the occasion. The electronic version is preferred for portability and a large amount of memory, and the paper version is revered for the soulmate – a spiritual friend who forms memories and makes you see the world the way the characters see it.
The scales are equal and, we hope, there will never be an advantage in it. It is impossible to say unequivocally which of the types of books is better, because having individual features, both options have a “right to life”. If business literature, science and psychology “enter” better on digital media, then paper publications are more often chosen for home evening reading of fiction over a cup of tea.
