When I was eight years old, my life’s goal was to have a library by the ocean. My library needed to be shaped like an octagon, and my blueprints included a large fireplace and a window seat facing the sea. I also wanted all my books to have gold-embossed covers, but I was willing to compromise on that point.
More than a decade later, e-books and portable electronic readers threatened to shatter my younger self’s dream. With the rapid integration of e-books into popular culture, would printed books slowly become obsolete? What would I do with the collection of beautiful tomes I had slowly been accumulating? Would my mother leave me her Kindle in her will, rather than her first edition copy of Anne of Green Gables? Thankfully, it seems that e-books’ fifteen minutes of fame are almost up.
When e-books and portable reading devices were first released, avid readers had a field day. The benefits of e-books were clear – simply press a button, and you have a new book (literally) at your fingertips. E-books were more convenient and less expensive than printed books, supposedly making them the obvious choice for rational consumers. However, the convenience of e-books comes at a great cost.
If you’ve ever read a lengthy novel (think War and Peace or the last few Harry Potter books), you know the satisfaction gleaned from finally closing the cover of the book is unparalleled. Even the musty smell of the paper and the physical act of turning each page are small pleasures we take for granted when reading a printed book. These little delights are lost when reading an e-book. Believe me, I’ve tried.
Yet another drawback to electronic reading devices: you have to charge the battery. Nothing is worse than immersing yourself in a book for hours on end, only to have your device’s battery die just as you reach the climax of the book. Printed books have an infinite battery life and require no upkeep that will interrupt your reading.
Finally, you remember more of what you read from printed books. Research shows that students who read printed textbooks instead of electronic textbooks consistently perform better on long-term memory tests where they are required to recall important details from what they read. Though the exact cause of this disparity is unclear, the scholastic benefits of reading a printed book are apparent.
If you own an electronic reader simply because it’s the “it” gadget of the year, go ahead and keep it. But if you take your reading seriously – if you revel in exploring fictional worlds, if you enjoy immersing yourself in a book for hours on end, if you read to grow and learn – do yourself a favor and stop buying e-books. Though electronic readers may be more convenient, printed books afford readers much more satisfaction and intellectual benefit. Printed books are here to stay.