(or more about e-book readers and why are they better than normal books)
When it comes to reading books on electronic device (e-reader), paperback editions usually have poor defense:
– Nothing can replace paper and the “real” book!
– Nothing can compare to the feeling of holding a book in your hand!
– It is very difficult to read on a computer!
And then the strangest, and usually the biggest argument is:
– How can I enjoy reading when I cannot smell the book?!
And because all of these reasons are completely well, ridiculous when you think about them, today I want to explain why I think e-readers are so much better than normal books.
- E-PAPER – First of all, any device that can display text on the screen can work as a book reader. However, e-readers are designed primarily for reading books (and texts in general) because they have a special technology called electronic paper and electronic ink. So even though every electronic device such as a tablet, computer or smartphone can be a book reader, only e-reader has electronic paper that, believe it or not, damage your eyes less than a paper book. So there is no radiation and it doesn’t hurt your eyes, on the contrary. You are actually reading the book, the contrast of paper and ink is the same as in an ordinary book, and the device does not emit heat when it’s in use. On the beach it’s even more comfortable to read with an electronic reader than from ordinary books because the e-paper doesn’t return blinding white color and it’s more suitable for the eyes (what’s even more, it can stand for hours in the sun without crashing).
- E-READING – Like any other digital device, e-reader has a certain memory and depending on its capacity can contain thousands of books, so you have (not too small) library right there in your pocket. You just sit and choose whatever you want to read today. Therefore the reader is phenomenal when traveling – instead of occupying a place in your suitcase and carry several real books (thinking will you get them back to the library at time) you can simply put whatever you want to read in your device. And the best of all – you don’t have to wait to get the next part of the book to find out what will happen in the next sequel of Game of Thrones. Or Harry Potter. Or Millennium. You simply open the second part of the book on your e-reader – and keep on reading! (In my case, when you-know-who died at the end of the first book of Game of Thrones, this proved to be more then useful!)
- E-BATTERY – As I mentioned, the reader is not getting warm while using and the image stands on the screen indefinitely – while not consuming electricity and not ruining the paper. Any device that has an LCD screen has a week spot with low battery life (eg. smartphone or tablet). On the other hand, e-readers are designed only for reading books, so they say that the battery can last until you read one book (about a month). Although, this is not true. Battery life on my Kindle lasted up to 3 months.
- E-TEXT – Also, on the display of the e-reader you can set the contrast, backlight, font size, spacing (meaning no dense print) and it can display text vertically or horizontally. In the main menu you see all of your books and you can easily create folders with books by topic or interest (eg. fantasy, thrillers etc.). Turning pages is very easy and buttons are suitable for right and left handed. So you can set up everything to be exactly as you prefer it when reading a book.
- E-READER PRICES – when it comes to e-reader prices, it is far, far more cheaper than the price of a tablet (or smartphone) and it can even be three times smaller. In addition to this, you always have the option to buy exactly what you want on the reader, without any applications that you do not want and will never use.
- TYPES OF E-READERS – As for the brands, Amazon’s Kindle is definitely in the lead but any other version of an electronic reader works on the same principle. Depending on the screen, there is the classic version with e-paper, then exactly the same version with a Kindle, 6″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>touchscreen and finally e-reader with color LCD screen (which is basically a tablet). For plain reading, first two versions are better, but color reader has its advantages (for example, you can play videos). If you are concerned about the display quality of the traditional e-reader (eg. for images and comics), I can tell you that the resolution is excellent and you can easily read all your favorite comics (or maybe a picture book).
- PURCHASE OF E-BOOKS – When it comes to buying e-books, books can be bought directly from the reader and directly downloaded from the Internet. You sit back and look what you want to read and within 2 minutes (or less), you have the desired book in your hands. Without going out. Without getting up from the couch. No matter what time it is and whether it is a weekend or holiday. And no matter in which part of the world you are currently. If you want to read some other type of text, each .doc, .pdf (or similar) format can be easily converted to a range of electronic formats that your browser supports and then transferred directly to the reader.
- E-BOOK PRICES – Maybe the best thing in the whole story about e-reader is the fact that electronic books are always cheaper than the classic paperback because there are no printing costs. Therefore you are not harming mother Earth with logging. If the price of a few dollars is still big for you, you can always borrow a book from other users for 14 days. And just on Amazon you can choose from millions of books that generally cost less than 10 $. In addition to that, there are 2 million books which are copyright free so they can be read for free (or at a price of up to 3 $). If you accidentally lose or delete a book, Amazon keeps your purchased and all other converted books in your account. With all this, in most cases you can read for free the first few initial pages or chapters of the book and decide if you want to buy and then continue to read right where you left! If you subscribe to a magazine, it will even be in your reader before the the print edition.
- E-NOTES & UNDERLINING – Another great thing about the e-reader is that you can underline and leave notes, without actually destroying the book. All underlining and notes are later easily available and you even have an option of sharing underlining and notes with others, so it can be very interesting to see which sentence, for example in The Magic mountain was highlighted the most. Of course, you can place bookmarks on certain pages and forget about page numbers because your book will open right where you left off.
- E-DICTIONARY – Another great thing about e-reading is that the reader has built-in vocabulary. So without interrupting your reading, word definition is displayed in the top or bottom of the corner. If you would like further clarification, you can open the word and search for more.
- AUDIO E-BOOKS – When you get bored reading a book or if you want to practice a foreign language, you can easily sit back and let the e-reader reads a book for you. Before reading of course, you choose the speed, tone and sex of the e-voice. Perfect for all sloths, but also children and people who want to learn a foreign language.
In the end, I don’t want to say that e-reader doesn’t have its flaws, because it does. Personally, I think two things are missing: 1) physically you cannot go through the book, and open a random page; and 2) the expiry date of the reader is limited (as well as all electronic devices). But because of all the things I’ve get with the e-reader, I rarely go back to paper books.
The conclusion is that if you want to have a device that will show you all the beauty of reading, without anything distracting you, while you save a forest or two, the e-reader is perfect for you (in the entire post you can find links to different types of readers and see which one suits you best). Finally, if you are interested in electronic publishing and e-books, read my article on how you can publish an electronic book.
Cyber hug! 🙂
