Reply To: eBooks vs. Print Books

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#988538
writersoul
Participant

I have a Nook, similar business, and there are pluses and drawbacks to both.

(Wow, really unexpected curveball there…)

I love books, and my Nook gives me the opportunity to read them whenever wherever without shlepping around bulky books. (I just finished Les Miserables, fondly known as “the brick.” If I’d seen it first in paper, I would probably never have dared to pick it up.) The screen is nonreflective, so it’s not like reading off a computer screen, and my particular version has a backlight which is handy now that I’m in transit in the dark. I have hundreds of books on there now, and I bring them all with me wherever I go without having to shlep around heavy books. There is no internet except for the Nook store, and B&N customer service takes care of it for you if it needs fixing. (It also uses the same charger as my phone, which is nice and convenient.)

Books, on the other hand, can never be really replaced. The Shabbos issue is obviously a big one, but even beyond that, the ability to look at two pages at the same time is something that I miss. The heirloom factor is also a big deal for me- some of my favorite books came from my mom. They don’t need charging and don’t occasionally freeze. (My Nook is a bit old.)

To sum up my tl;dr post, there’s a time and place for both, and I’m not giving either one up any time soon. The reading experience is great with both, but as far as the actual visuals, I’d make the argument between the ability to increase font size on the Nook and the ability to turn multiple pages at a time and view two pages side by side in real books. Otherwise, I think the experiences are quite comparable.