Monday Reads (Part Two): eReaders vs Books

After posting about my new ereader purchase yesterday, I thought I would write my thoughts about ereaders vs books. I am not new to ereaders. I have had a few ereaders since they came out a few years ago. When they first came out, I promised myself that I would never buy one. I loved my books too much. But then when I actually held one and got to use it, I was intrigued. I eventually caved and bought my first ereader. This did not mean that I stopped buying books. I am, to this day, still buying many hard copies of books and filling up my bookshelves. So why do I have an ereader? And why, if I enjoy reading on an ereader, do I keep buying hard copies of books?

If you were born in the 70s or 80s, you remember cassettes. I remember buying my first music tapes and playing them on the big tape player at home. Now, those tapes are pretty much obsolete. You cannot buy them from a store and playing cassette tapes you already have is difficult if you don't have a working tape player. Technology is advancing at such a quick pace that it's hard to know when one thing will be traded for another. Tapes became CDs and then CDs became mp3 files. This is why I still buy real books. Books that I read and I love and want to read over and over again, I buy hard copies of. I am terrified of where all the ebooks will end up years from now. Maybe they will be lost in cyberspace somewhere. So I make sure to try my best to collect all my favourite books in hard cover so I can take them with me, grow with them and eventually pass them on to my kids.

So then why would I even bother buying an ereader? There are a few advantages. The new ereaders, the ones with wifi, allow you to preview samples of books that you are interested in. I keep a list of books that I am interested in buying. With an ereader, I can download a free sample of the book and read a few chapters before I decide to buy it. Also, ereaders are now allowing you to borrow books from the library. Since I like to read in bed, I don't often like bringing books home from the library, especially when you do not know where they have been. There are thousands and thousands of free books that you can download. And the books that are not free are usually much cheaper than the physical book. I recently read a book on my ereader that was 34.99 in hard copy but only 12.99 as an ebook. Carrying an ereader is a lot easier than carrying a book when you're on the go. And if you're going on vacation, your ereader can hold up to a 1000 books so you don't have to be picky about which books you are going to bring with you.

That being said, I will always love my books. I will always love the smell of them, turning the pages, making my own mark on my books. So I always collect hard copies of books by my favourite authors as well as series I love. My ereader allows me to discover new books, to download books I know I won't read again and the ability to carry around my own personal library.

So if you own an ereader, that does not mean you're giving up on real books. It just means that you are taking reading to a new level.