Morning, bloggers,
You’d think that since I’m a blogger, then I’d love reading ebooks. You’ve assumed wrong. Me too. I honestly thought I’d enjoy more access to books. But I’m more of a physical reader. When I first started blogging though, I had a goal of reading more ebooks. I failed that, haven’t I? So why am I like this?
Well, that answer took a lot longer to come up with. So for my next discussion post, I want to discuss how I’m not a fan of ebooks and ereaders and why I’m okay with that.
I Prefer the Physical Aspect of Reading
The reading experience is important to me. And I don’t like taking that away so I could read an ebook. I need to hold a book, smell it, feel it, and occasionally toss it when I feel the need. But I grew up experiencing thousands of worlds, turning pages as fast as I could, and putting my nose up to the pages to smell the ink.
I don’t have many options to have that experience with an ereader. Some other readers will think differently though. Yes, you can live in thousands of worlds in an ebook, but you can’t smell the pages, now can you?
Ereaders Are Much More Expensive to Replace when Compared to Books
I don’t want to fling my expensive ereader when I’m angry about a character or scene. Frankly, I don’t want to because I don’t have the luxury of replacing it when my ereader decides to die. And I don’t want to be the reason it does.
And when you think about it, more ereaders are replaced with newer, shinier versions of the older one. I don’t like consumerism in the industry. I think the original version, the physical copy, is doing just fine.
I Take Longer to Read an Ebook, than a Physical One
Yup, I’m a horrible ebook reader. It takes forever for me to finish an ebook. One took me almost a whole month to finish. Maybe the way I set my ereader has made reading longer. I’m not sure. But I don’t connect with the book like I usually do with physical copies.
Even though I Have a Great E-Reader, My Eyes Don’t Think It Is
I can change the settings, turn the light on or off, and adjust the margins. So why am I so fickle? This is me we’re talking about. But I noticed at a certain point, my eyes don’t want to look at a screen anymore. Even though I read small font in mass paperbacks, and I don’t like that, I know staring at a screen won’t help with my daily eye strain. I need time away from more screens, not add more time when reading.
Sure, some of these readers, especially mine, do have options for night reading (orange or black screens). But I’m not a fan of those options. I’m still looking at a light on a screen.
Siobhan's Novelties 
I love my kindle and really love both physical books too. E-readers generally fit my reading and reviewing style better. But I love the feeling of going into my library and picking up a stack of books too. I think it depends on the readers preferences an lifestyle!
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Great post! I use both. I’m a night owl so I do most of my reading late at night in bed. And since I’m married, I can’t keep a lamp on, which makes my e-reader the best option. Plus no loud flipping of pages. 😉 I’ve grown to love my e-reader. It’s so much easier to curl up on my side with it than a physical book too.
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I’m a mix of both! Like I 100% prefer physical books but all my arcs come from Netgalley and I quite enjoy reading them on my kindle. The one thing that an eReader has in its favour is with long books. Recently I was reading Ducks Newburyport which clocks in at over 1000 pages and my wrists were not up to the task of holding the paperback so I bought an ecopy and was able to much better enjoy the book. But when push comes to shove I’ll always choose physical edition. I love the tactile nature of books like you described, the smell, being able to write in them etc. That all makes a physical book better for me :))) Great post!!!
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I’m a mix of both. I read books anyway I can whether that be physical, ebook or audiobook.
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I have a kindle, and I use it occasionally, but I 100% prefer reading and buying physical books. E-readers are very handy when travelling, so I tend to take it whenever I go away, but I always have a physical book as well!😅
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I love my e-books occasionally because they are handy. But I agree with the eye strain. I am on the computer ALL DAY at work. I really like to come home to a physical book.
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I prefer physical books as well, but do find myself picking up books I’m not sure of to read electronically. I don’t have an ereader – I actually just use the kindle app on my phone – and it works well since I always have my phone.
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