eBooks VS Hardcopies…if there ever was going to be a debate then I know, I would always vote for paper books..Being a voracious reader, I spend whatever free time I get in reading. Personally, I just love the smell of books, the cover, the bookmarks, the touch and feel of a new book. I feel happy when I am surrounded by books which translate to me as being surrounded by thinkers & pioneers of different eras and genre.
I fondly remember my child hood days when I used to keep my comics or story books inside my course subject books and read them secretly. Reading books with torch or candle light in fear of being caught when it was past my bed time is still fresh in my memories.
I just love curling up or lying down while I am reading and flipping through the pages. I find it very relaxing and enjoy the comfort of environment. These beautiful magic cannot be re-created with eBooks.
In today’s fast moving era, eBooks can be convenient as it takes less space to hold the huge volume of books & it’s lighter and easier to travel with however the flip side is, In case of eBooks, there is always a chance that battery will go dead or you might face power cuts, system getting hacked, deletion of folders, version incompatibility etc while you can still enjoy reading hardcopy of a book even when there is a power cut. Gazing at screen for longer period of time can hurt your eyes. Further eBooks can be quite distracting and boring while reading from the paper book keeps you glued to it. Every time I get to eBook, I find myself looking for printouts of the material as I find it hard to remain focused and tend to get distracted while reading the eBook.
However today Kids are growing up looking at the digital format of the books and I am sure they will just not be able to enjoy and realize the sheer bliss of paper books unless we make an active effort to emotionally invest them in reading paper books.
I hope that eBooks do not replace hardcopies in future and the paper books will continue to remain in demand, the way it was in the past. The joys of paper book reading are irreplaceable and sheer delight of reading them cannot be merely expressed in words .I sincerely hope that there are paper books fans like me around the world who still continues to be contended with the paper book reading even in this digital era.
