Pros and cons of E-books

Books are one of the oldest forms of telling a story. But today e-books are the new digital form of sharing your story. E-books have been around for a few years now. E-books are slowly gaining popularity just like physical paper books. E-books which are also known as electronic books is a text presented in a format that allows it to be read on any digital device like a computer, tablet, laptop. E-books are gaining more popularity and are preferred over traditional books. It has become more convenient for people to read a book online rather than buying a physical copy of the book. Print books do not seem to be relevant anymore but there are still a lot of people who prefer traditional books over e-books. The main purpose of e-books is to reduce the complexity of storing books. It can be noted that there are many advantages of e-books, but along with the advantages they indeed come with disadvantages too.

So, one of the main pros of e-books is that they are easy to read mainly because of the zooming in and out feature. It is easily portable as it can be carried around using light devices like flash disks or CDs. E-books are easily available online. You do not have to wait in long lines for hours to purchase the book, unlike traditional books which might take a lot of your time. Just hit the download button and done! You can carry thousands of books on your tablet which is one of the best things.

Now for some people, it is a huge advantage as you can read e-books in the dark. You can adjust the brightness of the tablet according to your convenience. There are various themes like dark mode and light mode and can easily be changed according to the person’s interest. So no more using flashlights under your blanket!!!

No need to squeeze your eyes! If you have weak eyes and find it very hard to read the book you can change the font of the text which is very much not possible in a paper book.

In some cases, you can annotate e-books too. Of course, you can annotate a normal book but you can’t undo what u annotated. Once done you cannot go back. However, in e-books, you can undo and highlight a certain line of the text.

An author can add links that can easily clarify any doubt that you have and get further knowledge about a particular detail. Another plus point for e-book readers is that the author can also add videos and audio which is astounding for people who don’t have time to read. They can just listen to the audio or watch a video. How cool is that!

Another merit of e-books is that it’s cheaper than traditional books. you have to bear a lot of additional costs like manufacturing costs, transportation costs, shipping costs, etc. However, in e-books you not only save up money from your pocket but, you also save the trees from being destroyed.

Now not every book has got an e-book version. It can be a tough job to find a fabled book. Even if you find it, it can cost you a lot of money.

The biggest con of reading e-books is that they strain your eyes which might result in eye problems like redness, itchiness, watery eyes. You might get insomnia due to excessive reading of e-books at night which is not good for your health. Give your brain some rest! You don’t want those dark patched dead eyes, do you?

Some readers don’t get satisfaction from the book. Honestly, I agree with this because I LOVE the feel and the smell of a book, there’s just something about a book and the way you take care of it Is just beyond e-books. It just feels so calming if you know what I mean.

The battery issue is a huge con of having e-books. Who likes to get up from their comfy couch to charge their tablet? This is honestly such a mood killer especially when you’re reading a great part and your tablet suddenly dies. Ugh!

E-books are harder to read in sunlight. Imagine you’re on a picnic with your family or friends on a bright Sunday morning and half the time you’re trying to change your position and enable to read your favourite e-book. Such a bummer! isn’t it?

Sharing is caring. It's one of the lessons we have been learning since childhood. Remember how good it felt when you shared your book with your friends? Unfortunately, e-books don’t fulfil the satisfaction of sharing. Sharing through emails or copy-pasting and sending it through text won’t give you the warm fuzziness of sharing.

There is no doubt that this is an endless debate. Both books and e-books have pros and cons respectively. We must embrace the beauty of reading books in both traditional and the latest ways. It’s the content that matters not the medium!