Benefits of Digital Books
In the last post we looked at the pros and cons of physical books. Now for digital books.
Digital Pros
Hardback, tablet, e-ink reader example form factors.
Zero bulk or weight. As a publisher, this also means that I can provide an 8 volume set, such as A Comprehensive Study of the Bible in a single volume. This would not be practical as a single, bound book. Simple distribution for publishers and simple consumption by readers, win, win. Readers consequently also get to choose which form factor they prefer for their book size in their hand. Phone? E-reader? Tablet? Mouse?
Super portable. 1,000s of ebooks can fit on a phone. You don’t even have to have them “with” you to get to them from your internet storage of choice. I have and recommend keeping a copy of your library stored with a minimum of 2 different storage providers, preferably one outside the U.S. with a proven track record as a digital haven.
Font size and typeface is adjustable to your preferences. Not only do you get to pick the form factor of the “book” in your hand, but specify how the words look on the page! Need large print? Click, click, done.
Read in light or dark. Backlight control, so no external light necessary.
White text on black background for reduced eye strain. If you haven’t given this a try, you should really attempt to do so, not only for ebooks, but for any screen reading you can. Your eyes will thank you.
Built in dictionaries. Highlight a word and get the meaning. Don’t trust the default dictionary, pick your own in many ereaders or cut-n-paste to your dictionary of choice.
Friendly footnote accessibility. This is huge for me. Anyone else really hate having to flip to the end of a chapter or to the end of the book to hunt down a footnote? Ebooks provide a “click to see footnote” and a “click back to main text” function. If you ever wondered why, as a publisher, CCs books don’t use “ibid”, this is why. How annoying to click a footnote link and see “ibid” if you haven’t clicked every footnote along the way to see what is being “ibided”.
Ready access to research in same hand as your book. Without putting down your “book”, it is nice to be able to do a search on a topic or item of interest that hits you as you are reading, even if it is only to bookmark it for later before you forget.
Purchase or list books of interest in footnotes / bibliography as you read from the same device you are using to read. Not great for your wallet admittedly, but you don’t have to buy them immediately, just put them on your wishlist.
Searchable. This may be my #1 or #2 biggest Pro for ebooks! Scenario: You know the book has a superb reference to “history event” or “famous person”, but its a 600 page book. For a physical book this is a problem. For an ebook, this isn’t even a challenge. Hit “search”, type in the text string and Voila!, all references are listed for you!
Notes & Highlights automatically created for quick search and reference
Notes and highlights are searchable, exportable and great for prepping papers and later reference. This is an important, but distinct search benefit that is #1 or #2 biggest Pro for me. Having the ability to have your highlights and notes not only be in the ebook you are reading, but exportable (automatically in the better ereaders) so you can review your highlights and notes and again, search those notes. If you have all your notes / highlights documents in one place, such as Google Drive, you can not only search a single book’s notes, but across all your notes! Now when you go to search for “famous person” or “famous event” you can search across all the notes of the books you’ve highlighted and notated!
You can provide a clean copy of the ebook to a friend so they can read it unmarked. You have your notes, they can have theirs and never the twain shall meet unless you wish to compare after the fact, without prejudicing the others reading. In the physical books pro list I listed the benefit of having an ancestor’s marked up Bible. Now imagine having a document that had every highlight and notation cross-referenced to each passage and it was legible! For most of us this would actually be beneficial as many of our own highlights and notations in our Bibles are in terrible shorthand due to space, such that the meaning of the actual notation is difficult to discern.
Lend away, borrowers can’t lose or damage your ebook. Yes, I recognize this treads into copyright issues. If you wish to “lend”, then insist on an honor system with your borrowers, but know that even Amazon permits lending with reasonable controls for a large portion of their offerings.
Backups. I have all my books on several computers in my house and on two different services on the internet. If you refer to pictures of my physical library in earlier posts, then you know this is impractical at the best and certainly outside my monetary means at the worst.
Calibre library software screenshot
Inventory tracking. I can quickly check if I already have a book, wherever I am without having to peruse physical storage. Additionally, it took me zero time to inventory my ebooks, but weeks to inventory my physical book library. Calibre software is a grand way to catalog, read and make your elibrary available to your entire household.
Most ebook readers now support having the book read audibly. Sure, it is a robot voice, but still a nice option in some use cases.
Speed reading apps are widely available for those that have issues reading and keeping lines straight. Also, lots of research does show that you can read faster with them, but definitely an adjustment period is required. I’ve not enjoyed them, but for some, they are an advantage if not a necessity. If I was younger and hadn’t built speedreading skills by working down a wall of text, I’d get on this bandwagon immediately.
There are immense amounts of scanned books that are out of print and otherwise inaccessible for those without vast sums of money. Admittedly, scans are generally PDFs and not optimal, but better than not having the book at all.
Digital Cons
Ebooks lack that physical touch-and-feel aesthetic we’re used to. Yep, let’s cut to the chase. This and the next con are the #1 and #2 reasons I hear when ebooks are dismissed as inferior. I have a nostalgic connection to physical books as well.
Ebooks lack that book and library smell aesthetic we’re used to.
Devices require power at least every few days / weeks. My reading tablet is good for several days between charges whereas my e-ink reader is good for several weeks.
If power and / or the internet went away, farewell to your ebooks. Of course, if that happens, you’ll be busy reading the physical copy of your survival manuals and Bible and can worry about any library later.
1st editions don’t matter. If you aren’t into collecting on any level, this may be a pro, not a con.
If you are relying on a service such as Kindle for your ebooks, be aware that they can update the ebook. On the surface, this is a good thing in that the publisher can update with grammar and spelling checks. There have been reports of books being “abridged” removing politically incorrect passages. I’ve not encountered this myself, but something to be aware of. This is a good reason to “free” your ebooks from online services ASAP so you have your own versions that can’t be revised or retconned without your knowledge. Yes, you can make copies of your Kindle ebooks and then read them on any device you want without any further interaction with Amazon. I may do a post on how to do this in the future.
Screen glare can be an issue in bright sunlight, though readers of the e-ink variety remove this problem.
So that’s what I have for and against ebooks. In the next post on this topic, I’ll weigh in with my preference.