E-Books or paper books?

Why should I have to choose? I have a library of paper books that grows larger every month, and now needs five bookshelves to contain it, but I also read a lot online, on my computer, and on my E-Book dedicated reading device.

Which is better? Who needs to know?

As with many things in life, different things suit different people and situations.

Paper Books

One big argument against paper books is that they take up so much room. They also get dirty and worn out - my favourite books are now on their fourth or fifth copy.

However they are great for mistreating - read in the bath (drop the book in and you will just have to hope it is short enough to read in one go underwater, or that you have enough room to store it in its e-x-p-a-n-d-e-d size. Read in bed, and wake up with an imprint of your latest read across your head in the morning.

Paper books are also great for impulse buying - there is nothing better than sneaking a book off a supermarket shelf in with the shopping, or browsing in a bookshop until you get drowsy with all those words.

Paper books are also cheap.

Reading Online and on the Computer

I do this a lot - I read on consumer sites like this one, I read web pages, and I often read e-books on the net.

The biggest problem I have with this is that it makes my eyes dry. You can guarantee that I will have a bad case of red eye when I go to bed tonight, having just discovered Mouthshut and its writers!

Because of this problem, if I want to read a book online - and you can at the Gutenberg Project, which aims to give people free access to as many books as possible - I usually print it out - cheating I know!

E-Book readers

These are the best - and I really mean it!

I bought a dedicated E-Book reader, the Nuvomedia Rocket EBook Pro last year for $279. That worked out at about £200 (UK). I had to order it online from the United States, and now unfortunately a company called Gemstar has taken over the two US companies making E Book Readers, Nuvomedia and SoftBook, and produced their own versions of both, which I have read on www.ebooknet.com are inferior to the originals.

Less about that - I bet you want to know what it can do.

The Rocket EBook Pro is about the size of a large paperback and weighs just over 2 Imperial pounds.

It has a screen that displays text like a page in a book, and buttons that you can click on to ’’turn’’ the pages. The screen is black and white LCD, and is backlit, which means that not only can you read outside in the sun, but you can read in bed without disturbing your loved one.

The downside to this dedicated reader is that the eBooks for it are priced at about the same as a hardback book, even though there are no associated distribution or manufacturing costs to speak of once the book has been written, converted to the right format and downloaded!

Unless the price of E Books drops sharply, as does the price of the readers, I can’t see many people buying into this method of reading.

Conclusion

I think that paper books are here to stay - at least for a long time to come.

There is something magical about the disposable nature of a book that appeals to me, and there is no way I can fit my PC into the bathroom! I doubt that a dedicated E Book reader would survive a dip in the bath either.

Part of the attraction of books is the very personal relationship the reader has with the paper book - dedications scribbled on the flyleaf of an old book in a charity shop, the smell of the book, and wondering who has read it before you - not to mention the most sinful of all - opening a brand new book for the first time - sheer wickedness!