I don't have an overarching preference for one or the other. I like them both for different reasons.
I like having the physical and aesthetic feel of a book etc for all of the reasons previous authors have already outlined so I'll save you that reiteration and focus on why ebooks and ereaders can be a good thing to adopt.
Even before ebook readers were readily available, I thought nothing of reading a book off a computer screen. Sometimes I still do that today. With particularly thick books, I am put off by its physical bulk and find it is much more pleasing to plow through it in ebook format so that I am not daunted or distracted by the size of the tome. Judgment aside concerning the literary value of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", I could never have finished a physical copy but, in ebook form, it was digestable. Although for the same reason, I would never recommend reading something like David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest" on an ereader (or really anything by DFW!) - basically anything with footnotes because it seems to me more practical to flick back and forth with a physical copy. Until they customise his books with cross-referencing like you would with an agreement in Word, it's not a feasible option for me.
Another plus for ebooks is, I like to go back to certain passages that I have read in a book or to check something that I might overlooked. Instead of flicking back and forth with a physical copy, I can just search with a choice term and it'll take me there. That kind of ease of reference works well for a reader like me.
I like having the physical and aesthetic feel of a book etc for all of the reasons previous authors have already outlined so I'll save you that reiteration and focus on why ebooks and ereaders can be a good thing to adopt.
Even before ebook readers were readily available, I thought nothing of reading a book off a computer screen. Sometimes I still do that today. With particularly thick books, I am put off by its physical bulk and find it is much more pleasing to plow through it in ebook format so that I am not daunted or distracted by the size of the tome. Judgment aside concerning the literary value of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", I could never have finished a physical copy but, in ebook form, it was digestable. Although for the same reason, I would never recommend reading something like David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest" on an ereader (or really anything by DFW!) - basically anything with footnotes because it seems to me more practical to flick back and forth with a physical copy. Until they customise his books with cross-referencing like you would with an agreement in Word, it's not a feasible option for me.
Another plus for ebooks is, I like to go back to certain passages that I have read in a book or to check something that I might overlooked. Instead of flicking back and forth with a physical copy, I can just search with a choice term and it'll take me there. That kind of ease of reference works well for a reader like me.
