Books, Real Books!
I had a conversation with a used book dealer the other day. He dealt in military books and said that people are buying fewer books than they used to. He said that only older people buy physical books because the younger generation buys only ebooks.
As someone who once loved ebooks and now only uses them occasionally when traveling, I wondered about that. So I googled the whole question. Interesting results!
A study in 2016 found that ebooks sales were dropping while books sales were rising. However, ebooks are great for public transportation commuters, low vision readers, and are usually cheaper than their printed counterparts. Worldwide, ebook sales are expected to be one quarter of all books sales in 2018.
Students prefer books they can mark in and remember more from printed reading, according to research studies. They also have trouble avoiding checking social media or playing games while reading an ebook on the same device. Light-emitting ebook readers also can harm sleep while reading a book does not. I saved my college philosophy book for many years because it could put me to sleep so quickly.
For picture books, to me, nothing beats paper illustrations. Not just because they are so much larger but the colors are much more vivid! Happy 50th birthday to Eric Carle and the Very Hungry Caterpillar! Which brings me to another point. Many of us still have this book on our shelves. A good physical book is a good memory that you see and have to read again!
Physical books encourage serendipitous discovery whether in a library or a bookstore. Certainly, when doing research, I have discovered great resources one shelf down or over in the library stacks!
And a throw-away paperback on the beach is much better than sand and an e-reader!
So I will use the occasional ebook but certainly not one quarter of my reading time--more like one tenth!
What about you? What and when are your reading preferences?
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