I'd also like to make a quick note here to say that there are some books actually available for reading on Goodreads. I first discovered this through the app, but you can actually read whole books on both the app and on www.goodreads.com/ebooks which I think is pretty cool. I haven't looked into it much yet, though I am planning to, but I'm pretty sure that some books you pay for but a lot are also free.
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| Sorry for the poor quality photo, my current read and the contents of my Kindle app, ft. Ikea duvet |
I thought I'd start this argument with a pros and cons of each book format, before giving my personal opinion on the whole thing. Starting with kindle books, the main pro is that they are very often cheaper than buying an actual book. Saying that, I do only buy the books that cost £2 or less or are free. Another major perk of kindle books is that they are so much more portable. You can carry hundreds of books around in a kindle or on the kindle app, and it's so much smaller and lighter than carrying even one book. The cons I have found with kindle books are that they're so sensitive, the slightest tap and the page will change or the font size will change or the page will turn sideways, it does annoy me. My biggest problem with them, however, is the fact that you never know how many pages there are in the book or how many pages in the chapter you're reading. As someone who reads books in blocks of chapters, I like to know how long my chapter is before I start it.
Obviously for me, the main pro to physical books is that I just love, love, love them. I love paperbacks, I love being surrounded by paperbacks, I like the way physical books smell, I love holding a brand new book and being excited about it. To me, there's something infinitely satisfying about holding and reading a physical book. Another pro for me personally is just having books, I like the way they look together on my shelves and I like looking at them and that's just something you can't get on an e-reader. There are also cons to physical books, though. Accessibility being one of them. By this I mean that, with some books, you can't get them in your local book store or library, making life a whole lot more difficult, especially if you have to resort to online ordering. With kindle books, you can just go onto Amazon, click download, and the book is there on your kindle immediately. Simple as. The other major cons with physical books are ones that I have mentioned briefly in the pros of kindle books. Namely, money and space. Books, especially hardback books, are not cheap, £7/£8 for a paperback is not the nicest price, especially when many kindle books cost under £5. And space, there's just not enough room to keep all the physical books, no matter how nice they look.
Overall, I do see the plus side to both book formats. My mum loves her Kindle and I love my Kindle app (which is free on the app store, by the way), and Kindles are just so practical and useful that you can't fail to appreciate them. However, I'd have to say my loyalties lie with physical books. Though I love the Kindle prices sometimes, I will always choose a paperback over an e-reader any day, and you just can't beat the feel of a brand new or well loved physical book.
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