Online Books VS. Physical Books
"Books are no more threatened by Kindles than stairs by elevators." — Stephen Fry.
When the zombie apocalypse knocks out electricity in town, and the internet is down, your physical books will still be there with you. You might also be able to fight a semi-dead creature by swinging a sizable oxford dictionary. It is no mystery or secret that the introduction of online books has affected the prevalence of physical books in one way or another. Still, we must also acknowledge that both types have proven to be necessary for all kinds of age groups.
Reading is a fundamental skill most people should have. Unfortunately, the global literacy rate of 86.3 percent means that a few hundred million people cannot read, regardless of the type of literature they are presented with. And in this age, when physical books may still be inaccessible to kids and even adults, e-books have evidently been used as a solution. Another part wherein online books have been proven more convenient is in the case of traveling. Every bibliophile loves a room full of hardcover books, packed shelves from top to bottom, but not all of them or even a quarter of them can be traveled with! It also helps that most e-book readers have options to adjust the font size, brightness level, offer on-screen explanations of difficult words, etc. All of these make them more accessible to kids. Moreover, kids have already begun to prefer reading books online on devices rather than reading a paperback. Technology has always fascinated the little ones, and e-books are also a tremendous help to children who are dyslexic and find reading difficult.
"Life without a Kindle is like life without a library nearby." — Franz S. McLaren, Home Lost.
Everyone loves the smell of a new paperback book. The softness of its pages, as well as the printed textures, are just incomparable. This is probably one of the biggest reasons people still prefer physical books rather than online editions. There is always the advantage of preventing eye strain with physical books, which is severely unpreventable in the case of e-books and their artificial lighting. Paperbacks also help maintain the reader's focus on the book itself, without diverting the focus towards any other link or source. We often hear that children the age of five are also addicted to their devices; even if it is to read a book, this online addiction can still prove dangerous. This is not the case with physical books, as reading them will not be harmful in any scenario. Having another characteristic of being tradeable, these books help keep a part of history, i.e., the barter system, alive and regular. Lastly, being tangible, physical books, when held, give a different fantastic feeling. We realize the value of books when we can physically see the book in our hands.
"If you drop a book into the toilet, you can fish it out, dry it off, and read that book. But if you drop your Kindle in the toilet, you're pretty well done." — Stephen King.
