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Books vs. eBooks - the neverending battle
Other | Monday 17th September 2012 | Osh
With the release of the Kindle Fire, the newest upgrade from the popular Kindle eBook series, in addition to the growing community of iBooks users, the fierce battle between books and eBooks continues. The more pragmatic amongst us can understand the value of eBooks, but the sentimental drag it back to real books, be they dogeared paperbacks or glossy hardcovers, every time.
I can see why books have held their own so long: they smell good and they're nice to hold. There's nothing like reading a book and actually turning the pages, and plenty would argue that it makes turning the last page feel like more of an achievement.
Owning a book in itself is commendable - you get the pride of having it lie on a real shelf where everybody can see it and judge you on how cultured your literary tastes are (or aren't). With the rapidly increasing use of technology, it's a luxury to be able to know somebody by what's on their shelf, from CDs to games to books. Asking somebody for their Kindle or their iPod to scan through is a lot less discreet than glancing around the room to pick out your favourite names and titles.
However, where practicalities fall in, the eBook triumphs - though it weighs less than most books, the Kindle can store up to 3500 books and can easily slide into most bags. It's easy to bring out on a train, bus or tube, and its backlight means that you can read in spite of poor lighting. For those of you that read in bed, the eBook makes the experience much more comfortable, because it can be operated with one hand. Most importantly, eBooks are a lot less likely to leave you skint in the long run - generally speaking, a book costs about £7, whereas eBooks start off at the lower end of free and plateau around £20.
The obvious choice here thoroughly depends on your priorities - if you're very attached to kicking back with a book, if you treasure your ripped second editions and your dropped-in-the-bath-twice novels to the very end (which, as some of you die-hard readers will know, is only when the last page has fallen out), you might struggle to adjust to the digital alternative. This eBook outbreak could lead to books following the same path as records and - nearly extinct until the indie kids claim it for themselves.
- Ishani Bagga
