Sunday, September 2, 2012

Books: Paper vs. Electronic

IPad:

For over the past couple of years, I have read my books on my IPad.  It's amazing how easy the Kindle app + Amazon.com have made purchasing a book, the quick download.  Instant gratification for millions and millions of titles.  The expense can also add up...but I read pretty slow, so it is rare that I buy more than one book over a two week period. 

I love swooping my finger across the screen to turn the page.  I love putting my book mark in the corner and seeing the line at the bottom of the screen to show how far I've gone through the book, the percentage of completeness as well as my current location.  I love being able to highlight a word I am unfamiliar with and the definition popping up at the bottom.  I love highlighting a name or event and having wikipedia bring me to the exact page where I can read on about it.

Electronic books are amazing.  I can carry my entire library with me at all times.  A book lover's dream.

Books:

I still pick up the occasional book...when someone lends one to me or a book I've had lying around the house that I haven't gotten to.  Also, re-reading one of my classics (Catcher in the Rye) causes me to use a book rather than my IPad.

However, I miss the smell of a new book.  I miss the first moments where I flip the pages and smell the crisp paper...and indication that every time I pick it up, I'm going to be lifted from my life and deposited into a world in which I know nothing.  Meeting characters that I love or hate...or love to hate.  I miss walking into the office of my home and seeing my bookshelf lined with my conquests.

What I don't miss, is carrying a giant book such as Shantaram or War and Peace with me everywhere I go...having to carry an extra large purse to fit my current read. 

So...books, be it electronic or paper, have their advantages and little perks...but I will say that I absolutely love having information at my fingertips.  I love reading on my IPad, but also the nostalgia of laying in bed with paper in my hand.

Um...random?  Yes.

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