Books in print form or digital form; which do you prefer? This is the question we asked several people this week and asked them to give us five reasons reading print books is still popular.
Here is what they told us:
1. Many people prefer the “feel” of the physical books when they are reading.
We often hear our friends and colleagues saying they just haven’t followed the trend of reading books on an e-reader. They own tablets or e-readers, but prefer the feel of holding an actual physical book in their hands when they read. “There’s just something about holding the corner of the page and the sensation of flipping to read the other side, ” one friend told us. Another said, “The satisfaction of turning the last page and closing the cover just can’t be duplicated on an e-reader or tablet.”
2. They don’t like using an e-reader because of screen fatigue.
The second most common reason for preferring a physical book, is reading on digital screen still causes too much eye strain or fatigue. For some avid readers this means reading fewer books. Also, reading on an e-reader at night makes it hard to fall asleep was a common complaint that people had.
3. Used bookstores don’t sell “digital” or e-books in their brick-n-mortar stores.
This response was a bit of a surprise but, it made sense as they explained their answer. The primary type of non-print books sold at used bookstores are audible copies on CD. One person commented, “it’s a great feeling hunting for bargains. Walking out of the store with ten ‘Star Wars’ novels for around six dollars can’t be beat. You don’t get the same emotion with CD’s, not if you truly love to read.”
4. Sometimes new paperbacks or used books cost less.
Although there’s a percentage of digital books that cost under five dollars there has been a rise in the number that cost ten to fifteen dollars or more. While at the same time or even in the same marketplace new paperback or used copies cost less. When you can purchase a physical copy for less than a digital copy, readers will take the physical every time.
5. A growing number of digital books have little real content.
The digital marketplace has a growing number of author’s work that have little substantive content. You don’t need to look far to see evidence of this. “I always look at the page count before I purchase or even download a sample of a digital book. If there’s fewer than 75 pages I seldom look any further; and I buy a lot of titles every month.” “How some of these rise to best sellers lists in online bookstores is beyond me,” one friend said.
At the end of our conversations, with our friends and colleagues, we concluded it really was more of a personal preference whether they chose print over digital. Even buying new versus used, online used books versus offline, more pages versus less pages; it all comes down to what they chose to do.
The Project Crew at My Project Club