Books or e-books? This is the main question which all book lovers ask themselves. On the one hand they think that e-books are more comfortable to use than traditional books, but on the other hand classic stays classic. But with the advent of electronic books, the relevance of printed materials is slowly fading away – only true aesthetes and orthodox readers do not change the “living book”. According to the forecasts of contemporaries, electronic resources should replace the printing industry, which still holds its audience.
The abundance of smartphones, e-readers and tablets affects the loss of interest in paper books. And the truth is – instead of stuffing shelves at home or a backpack on the road, it is much easier to download dozens of books to a small device that is always with you. So, we will highlight some advantages and disadvantages of both books, and at the end of this topic, you will figure out what kind of book you exactly need.
Read and don’t forget.
The e-book is forgotten faster. This is just a theory, but research in the UK showed that children aged three to five years understand the essence of a story if it was read to them not from electronics, but from paper. Also, this thing happens with bilingual books. When parents read bilingual children’s books to their kids, it is better to be a traditional book, because in bilingual books it is important not only reading, but also remembering the new words ect. Scientists are sure that this phenomenon may be due to the fact that gadgets distract children from any mental work in general.
A similar experiment was repeated with adults: a group of students was divided into two parts, some read a fiction story through a special application, others in an ordinary book. The results were stunning: the second group was able to reproduce the plot of the work almost completely, including the smallest details, the boys and girls from the first could not boast of the same. So, if you want to not only feel pleasant while reading the book, but also remember what you have read, try traditional books, it is much better.
Comfortable for using.
Imagine, you are going to travel and in your reading list there are five to ten books. So, you already understand that it’s almost impossible to take with you ten books, of course if you’re not going to take only books. So, in this case e-books will come to help you. Weight, miniature dimensions, compactness and lightness allow you to carry the e-book in your bag or even your pocket and not part with it, wherever you are. On the road or when moving, you do not need to lug heavy books with you – a compact 400 g will replace a lot of kilogram waste paper.
Protect your eyes.
Considering that in modern realities you spend most of the time in front of a computer or smartphone, the load on your eyes can be called critical. In fairness, it should be noted that the screens of the latest models of electronic devices are as close as possible to an ordinary book, however, as experience shows, this is still not enough.
A survey of almost five hundred students from world universities showed that half of the students experience a constant feeling of discomfort in their eyes after switching from paper to electronic media.
Ecology.
Even though we are trying to keep our ecology as hard as possible, we have a huge problem with ecology. Fifteen billion trees are cut down annually to make paper, and this figure is growing every year. So maybe it’s time to start reading e-books to avoid this kind of problem. The popularization of e-books significantly reduces the flows of the paper industry and fosters a respect for the resources of the planet.
Think about kid’s education.
Surprisingly, the fact remains: the more books there are in the house, the easier it is for the child to study. According to a survey conducted in 42 countries, children who read in addition to the school curriculum find it much easier to cope with exams and tests.
Read them from small ages with traditional books. Let them touch the pages, turn the pages, touch the illustration or show and read them bilingual books. For them this will be the new thing, because now kids play with smartphones, they already know how to use them, so make them be friends with books too. In addition, the researchers believe that the presence of a large number of beautiful, colorful books in the house makes the child perceive reading not as a duty, but as pleasant fun, a game. And yet you always want to play much more than pore over the lessons.
Saving.
If you are a big lover of reading, and you read so fast, you might spend lots of money to buy a book every day. Sure, you can rent from the library, but there will come other problems like you can’t find the book you want, or it’s already booked. So, with books you don’t have this kind of problem. You can find any book you want, anytime you want. To read the desired book, you do not need to spend a lot of money, because you can download it absolutely free and then delete if you need. This will also save your money when you want to learn language with books. There are so many bilingual e-books. This kind of bilingual e-books will help you to learn both language wherever you want.
So, most buyers choose both types of books – each on a case-by-case basis. The electronic version is preferred for portability and a large amount of memory, and the paper version is considered a soulmate – a spiritual friend who forms memories and makes the world see the way the characters see it.
The scales are equivalent and, we hope, there will never be an advantage in it. It is impossible to say unequivocally which of the types of books is better, because having individual features, both options have the “right to life.” While digital media is better suited to business literature, science and psychology, paper editions are more often chosen for home evening reading of fiction over a cup of tea.
