Monday, September 30, 2013

E-book Vs. Real Book

I have never been a fan of E-book and always preferred the real book.Why? 

Sense of Possession

I love collecting books and arranging them on my bookshelf or leaving them on disarray at the floor. I love looking at them. Counting them. Making an inventory of my precious possessions on my little notebook. I love touching them. Run my fingers through its pages. Feeling the rough texture and careful not to touch them with wet finger because of fear of smudging the letters. Writing my name on one of its page. Branding it. And most of all I love smelling it. Rifling through the pages and smelling it. Maybe it is the smell that is addicting. 

However lately I rarely buy books. I only bought two books for the last three years. I do swap books online (Bookmooch) though or borrow from friends. My budget for books has gone to my son's story books and picture books. And I also have limited space for books in our new house that I have to give away or sell some old books.

Because of my desire to read I succumbed to reading E-books. Fortunately my son lets me borrow his Ipad every now and then or I steal it when he is busy with his other 2 year old activities. I use Kindle reader and pretend that I am reading a real book. What I love about it is that I can download e-books online for free or ask from friends so I would always be updated with the current books. I can also read the Ipad lying down compared to reading it on the computer. The screen is also bigger and the brightness and scale can be adjusted. But if I have the resources I would definitely choose real books over E-books anytime.