Question of the Day

[ice_kestrel9]

Turn the Page
How do you feel about e-readers? Would you rather read an actual, physical book? Why do you prefer one over the other?

Five, six years ago when eBooks were the Next Big Thing, I thought that it would be the greatest thing in the world. I've always loved to read, and there were some things that I believed digital books would improve.

• Books are heavy. Textbooks are heavier. High school english textbooks from which you need only 5 pages of text for class are the heaviest things ever. With e-books on a tablet, you could have entire libraries at your fingertips, with only the weight of your tablet in your backpack.
• Books are expensive. Textbook costs are the bane of existence for college students. I had assumed that the high cost of books was due to paper, binding, and printing, but more on this later.

Now I realize that:

• Reading eBooks on a tablet or computer makes my eyes hurt. Maybe this is just me, but this past week I was studying for finals and after two days, I had a headache and my eyes hurt. Perhaps it's because of allergies; perhaps it's because of the bright backlight of my computer.
• Electronic devices run out of battery life. Even with the extensive battery life of electronics today, at some point that iPad is going to warn you there is only 1% left and after that you're left sitting around unable to read your e-books. No one is every going to say, "Oh, my book just ran out of battery. I need to find an outlet and charge it."
• eBooks are hard to flip through. Supposedly there are built-in quick-nav links to take you to your desired chapters, and bookmarking functions for you to find certain spots. I can't seem to use them properly. With a physical book, I can quickly leaf through pages, find my favorite passages, or skip to the end (and read spoilers!). Textbooks especially, are hard to use on my iPad. Again, perhaps it's because I have a 1,000+ page biology textbook that overloaded the app on my tablet, but when I'm studying I do want to be able to jump from chapter to chapter comparing figures.
• eBooks are cold, distant and aloof. I miss the feeling of paper beneath my fingers. I miss the smell of fresh ink in new copies of books. I miss marveling at the jacket of hardcover books, be it matte or satin or glossy, with raised embellishes and price stickers and all the promise they behold. I even find myself missing the weight of the book in my hand (and realizing that an iPad is pretty heavy on the hands still).
• eBooks cost a lot. WTH. Most of this costs is because of copyrights, and the authors earning their percentage and whatever. A kindle edition of a book on Amazon is a few dollars cheaper than the paperback. In other words, for a few dollars more, I can get a wonderful physical copy of a book in my hands (and free shipping with Amazon Prime~), a book that can sit gloriously on the coffee table next to my coffee, a book that I can curl up on the sofa with on a rainy afternoon. For only a couple of dollars- less than the cost of a latte at Starbucks. What a strange world we live in.
• On the matter of expensive e-books, rental e-books are a thing. I'm looking for the textbook I need for my biochemistry class in two weeks, and Amazon was kind enough to offer several options. I can rent the kindle edition of this wonderful textbook for the low low sum of $68.08

umm, yeah. As enticing as that may sound, I'm not going to spend $70 on digital data that I'm not allowed to keep.

In fact, one gif is not enough to express myself.


so concludes my mini-rant against eBooks and the outrageous prices of textbooks that college students are subject to.