Thoughts On: eBooks vs Physical Books

It’s been absolutely ages since I’ve done a thoughts-on post, but I have loads of ideas and they will slowly be emerging in the next few weeks! I’ve managed to find a few free minutes in my busy schedule (as if) and I’m here to discuss an age-old debate, almost as famous as the “chicken and the egg” debate. Yes, I’m going to give my two cents on the pros and cons of eBooks and physical copies, and which side I lean towards.

Naturally, I’ll start with where my opinion is settled. I am a physical copy gal all the way, for the most stereotypical reasons possible. I love the whole shebang of owning (or even just borrowing and reading) a physical paperback or hardback version of a book; the appearance, the new book smell, the pristine conditions of those fancy books on the bookshelves. I also love holding an actual book as I read it, especially because I prefer reading from actual pages rather than on a device.

I get irritated very easily when I have to read on a screen; it’s easy to bash on eBooks when I rarely use them, so I don’t want to do that. I could end up changing my mind. But for now, I just know that it would take a considerable amount of effort for me to read for a long period of time on a Kindle, etc. But, as much as I love to argue for the physical copy side, there are pros and cons to everything:

My list of cons of physical copies:

1. The most obvious: it is a bit redundant to continue cutting down trees for physical books when our digital age is rapidly developing. The amount of paper used for the millions of books we produce every year is wasteful.
2. Books are inconvenient to transport. I can only carry a maximum of two or three with me in a carrier bag if I travel for a holiday, whereas eBooks are literally limitless as long as you have your trusty Kindle/reader with you.
3. Have you tried lying down and reading a book? Holy crap, it’s hard to juggle with your paperback and your flailing limbs when you’re in your bed. Finding comfortable reading positions with your book is a serious struggle.
4. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I HATE bending the spines of my books, enough so that they looked really cracked. So, linking this to the point above, you can just imagine the fiasco I must endure. No such problems with handy eBooks.
5. The issue of damage. Anything can happen to those fragile pages!
6. Cost. It’s quite clear that there is a price imbalance between eBooks and physical books, for obvious reasons.
7. Finally, this is a bit of a silly one: trying to eat and read at the same time. It feels a little something like this:

So, considering those points, would I switch to eBooks? Definitely, in future. As much as I’ll always be a traditional girl, I really will invest in a Kindle in the future. It’s efficient, cheaper and easier to transport. So, getting over my pride will be my biggest obstacle 😀

Of course, I may meet it halfway: own physical copies of books I really want, and invest in eBooks for other reads. Sounds like a plan! I don’t think I’ll ever stop buying actual books, because my bookshelf is fun to decorate and I love books. But for the future of the planet and our technological age, I will have to change some of my ways.

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And those are my opinions on the eBook vs physical book! It was a little lame, but going into the future I think eBooks will only get more popular. Any other traditional book-lovers like me who can’t let go of their paper and hardbacks? Let me know below! Thanks for reading 🙂