Why I Swapped the Feel of Real Books for Digital Reading: A Look at 8 Factors That Influenced Me

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Few things satisfy a reader like the smell of a freshly opened book and the feel of pages between their fingers. As much as I also love the experience of reading physical books, I’ve decided to make the switch to ebooks. Here are eight reasons why I’m not going back to paper any time soon.

Ebooks Are Convenient and Portable

Have you ever been traveling with a paperback and suddenly ran out of story hours away from your final destination? Sure, you could carry more books, but they take up a lot of space. An eReader can carry multiple volumes of ebooks in the same footprint as just one book.

What’s more, there are ebook apps that readers can install on their phones. Apps like Kindle Reader allow a free and simple way to consume ebooks without even buying specialized reader hardware. Since I already read on my phone, this is relatively easy (although I prefer the feel of an eReader). You can even open EPUB files on Windows if you’re so inclined.

I Can Get a Book When I Want It

Lydia Pike / How-To Geek

I remember reading a particular novel once and finishing it at the start of a weekend. Bookstores were closed, and the earliest I’d get the next installment was two days away. Now, I don’t have to wait, and ebooks make it much easier to consume longer series.

Online stores like Amazon can even deliver an ebook to any internet-connected eReader that’s compatible with their format. The delivery system also makes it easy to send ebooks to yourself through a simple email function . I don’t have to wait an entire weekend to resume a series ever again. I can just buy it immediately and pick up where I left off.

I Don’t Need Nearly As Many Moving Boxes

Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek

I’ve switched apartments several times in my life, and each time, I’ve had to spend a ton of money on moving boxes to cart my collection of novels, manuals, and technical textbooks around. Luckily, most of these are now available in ebook format, meaning I can get rid of the original texts and hold onto the information in ebook form.

Some might say that this gives away the physical copy of a book, but it’s easier to carry a single eReader up six flights of stairs than it is to card over 200 books the same distance. While I appreciate a good hardcover book as much as the next person, my back is different from what it was a decade ago, so I’ll stick to my ebooks for the foreseeable future.

More Efficient Spending on My Hobby

Reading can be an expensive hobby if you opt for physical books. The average cost of a paperback is between $8 and $10, and a hardcover book could range between $16 and $25 per copy. Naturally, this means I am limited in what I can afford, and I have to be more selective in my title choices.

I still have to be selective in my titles with ebooks, but I have some leeway in what I can get. As a member of Amazon’s Prime service, I get a free newly published ebook each month . The average cost of an ebook ranges from $1 to $3, with more established authors calling for $6 to $10 for their latest work. This means I can potentially get 2 to 3 ebooks for the cost of one paperback novel. I know which one I prefer.

I Can Customize My Text Delivery

Joe Robinson / How-To Geek

I always like flicking through a paperback to see what the words are like inside. Sometimes, however, a book’s font might be jarring and off-putting. In such a case, no matter how good the story is, I’ll decide not to buy the book. With an ebook, I can adjust the text size, font style, and even the layout in some cases.

This gives me the power as the reader to choose how I read my text. For many people, this means better accessibility and even the use of fonts that help with dyslexia. In my case, that could mean changing the font to Comic Sans if I wanted to and not having to worry about being a minority that can’t have the book printed in a font they enjoy.

A Dictionary At My Fingertips

Lucas Gouveia / Justin Duino / How-To Geek | Moon+

According to Stephen King , to be a good writer, one has to read a lot and write a lot. That’s why, when I read, I usually do it with a dictionary nearby to look up words I don’t understand. It helps me get a better grasp of the English language and also helps me learn new things every day.

With an ebook, I don’t have to fetch a dictionary, as most eReader software has some sort of built-in dictionary that allows the reader to highlight a word or phrase and get a definition for it. This is uniquely useful when you’re trying to figure out what a word means and don’t have the time to go find a dictionary to look it up.

I Consume Less Paper

Bertel King / How-To Geek

The world is dealing with a looming environmental disaster, and we can prevent it by conserving trees. While I love reading paper books, and they still hold a special place in my heart, I don’t think destroying the planet for my hobby is fair. Ebooks are all electronic, and while they still consume power, they cause less overall environmental damage . I’ve learned how much my actions could hurt the planet, so I’m taking this stand to reduce it by just a little.

Accessibility and Comfort Features

I mentioned setting my text size and style earlier, but ebooks also allow for many other features that improve accessibility and ease of use. For example, I could keep a cookbook open to a particular page without worrying about spilling anything on it and obliterating the recipe.

I also enjoy reading at night before bed. With most eReaders, a backlight helps with letting me see the words while I go through the story. It also means that I don’t have to disturb anyone else by leaving a light on or using a tiny flashlight, which may potentially damage my eyesight.

I’m Not Saying You Should But…

People should always have the choice to decide what they want to do. I appreciate physical books a lot. I still have some of my original collection, although it’s much diminished since I shifted to an e-library. Still, the benefits that ebooks offer can’t be understated. As much as I love paper books, ebooks have proven to me that they’re worth it.

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Why I Swapped the Feel of Real Books for Digital Reading: A Look at 8 Factors That Influenced Me