As a teen that travels around the world, I do school completely online. That means that pretty much everything that I read is online too. Just recently I read the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell, for my English class. It was completely on a website that the curriculum provided. After nine years of going to a traditional school reading everything on my computer was a big change. That led me to think about the pros and cons of reading eBooks.
Here are some good and bad parts about reading eBooks.
The Good
1. Portable
I can read anywhere and everywhere because all eBooks are the size of the device you read them on. You can have thousands of books on one device like a Kindle, computer, iPad, iPhone or Nook. There is no need for bulky textbooks that I used to carry around at school. Wherever you are you could just pull out your device and start reading. Consolidating all of your books on one device creates space and saves weight for you to bring other things on your travels.
2. Easy
When reading on mobile devices it’s almost impossible to lose the page you were just reading. It is also really easy to borrow eBooks or buy books. All you have to do is click or touch the screen a couple of times and you have a book ready to read you don’t even to ship the book. When overseas it’s hard to find the right books that you want, and in the right language. I’d honestly rather buy or borrow online instead of going to the library or the bookstore. To make life even easier, some eBooks are even read aloud to you.
I’m not all about saving the planet and that type of stuff, but if you look at a school with 1,200 kids then you’ll notice that there’s a lot of paper being wasted on a daily basis. Obviously eBooks don’t use paper so I guess there is some positive influence on the environment.
The Bad
1. Eye Strain
Reading can hurt. After doing school online and reading books sometimes your eyes might burn. Reading takes lots of staring at pages, and after a while you might need to take a break. However, certain eReaders without backlights aren’t as bad as reading on a computer.
2. Smaller Selection
I was looking online at some websites provided by our local library but there was barely any variety for eBooks to borrow. Still there are more choices for print books, but I think that will change soon, with more and more people buying eBooks. Companies like Amazon have tons of eBooks, but they are only for sale, unless you have an Amazon Prime Membership which allows you to borrow on book per month. eBooks would be more likeable if there were more borrowing opportunities.
3. Lack of Physicality
I honestly would rather read a real book. I think that it is better to actually hold a book and turn pages than to hold a mobile device and read. That is just a preference of mine, but eReaders like Kindles have page look almost like real pages, which is pretty cool.
Do you prefer eBooks or physical books? Leave your comment below.
Leave a Reply