2. What Makes a Book?
In essence, the two formats are very similar. Both allow you to do the most important thing -
read a book.The text is the important thing, not the medium. Reading Sumerian legends on
clay tablets can feel more "authentic", but doesn't necessarily enhance your understanding of
the subject matter - just your experience.
Depending on the type of material you'd like to read / look at, however, one does have
advantages over the other.
3. The "Classic" Paper Book.
Paper books offer multiple advantages:
They're easily obtainable (Bookstores are everywhere).
They're easily portable.
They don't normally cause significant eye-strain.
They're cheap.
Okay, that much was obvious. Specifically, some types of content
paper books are better for are:
Textbooks (or any books which are generally large-format).
Picture / Photo books.
Another factor to bear in mind is that paper books don't need power
to function.They can be read anywhere with sufficient light, and are
perfect travelling companions for exactly this reason.
The obvious cons are:
Paper books are bulky and heavy. Carrying more than 2-3 around
can become a chore.
You need a light source to read them - another thing that you'll
probably carry around.
If you make notes in them, those notes are there to stay (Yes, even
pencil.You can always see the imprints, even if you erase every last
shred of graphite).
4. The eBook
eBooks offer the following obvious
advantages (assuming you have an ebook
reader):
They're easily readable. Most readers
offer zoom functions, letter resizing, and
so forth.
They're easily portable.You can carry
multiple books on one device.
They're much more environmentally
friendly.You don't have to kill a few trees
for each book, and let's not even talk
about the ink. Recycling only goes so far.
Note-taking is much more powerful, and
the notes you write can be found and
referenced quickly and easily. And they
don't have to be permanent.
Lighting conditions essentially become
meaningless. Many readers incorporate
display lighting allowing you to read
whenever and whereever you like.