With summer officially here, it’s not just the temperature that’s heating up: the debate over whether electronic books are better or worse than old-school tomes seems to spark a surprising amount of passionate discussion among avid readers.
Summer vacation is the time most of us catch up on our reading, and you might be trying to decide whether to pick up of a few paperbacks from Ye Local Bookstore, or to take the plunge on some kind of e-reader device.
Some say bits and bytes are all you need to enjoy the latest bestseller, while others maintain that enjoying literature on anything but the printed page is a heresy that makes Shakespeare spin in his grave.
Allow us to set you straight on which is the right choice: either. Or both.
Why books are better:
- They’re durable. Get an e-reader wet, and you could be the proud owner of an expensive piece of dead electronics. Get sand in the e-reader’s ports and it’ll gum ‘em up. Get suntan lotion on the screen and”¦ well, probably nothing really bad will happen, but it looks and feels nasty. Books, on the other hand, dry out if they get a bit wet, sand shakes out of them with ease and sunscreen only leaves the odd smudge. They’re practically designed for summer’s elements.
- It’s no big deal if you lose one. If you realize you left your copy of The Hunger Games in the seat pocket on the plane, you say “d’oh!” and pop into the nearest bookstore to get another. If you realize you left your e-reader in the seat pocket on the plane, you bellow “NO!” and spend the rest of the afternoon playing phone tag with the airline’s lost and found. That’s no way to begin a vacation, is it?
- They’re books. As much as I love e-readers, there’s much to be said for the tactile sensation of holding chunks of dead tree in your hand, or seeing their colourful spines lined up on your shelves. Plus, there are things books can do that e-readers just can’t. One of my favourite novels, Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves, wouldn’t work on an e-reader – it does funky, crazy things with fonts and page layouts that would be utterly lost on an a plain-text screen.
Why e-readers are better
- They hold tons of books. If you’re planning a two-week beach vacation and you want to spend lots of time chilling out and reading, you better bring an extra suitcase just for the books. The Kobo eReader Touch Edition ($139, www.kobobooks.com), on the other hand, is so tiny and light that you can throw it in your carry-on and not even know it’s there. Plus, it holds up to 1,000 books. Heck, never mind vacation – that’s enough for a stint in prison!
- Instant access. Most e-reader devices allow you to download books from online stores via any Wi-fi hotspot, but if you’re a little more off the beaten track or you don’t want to trek back to the hotel, the Amazon Kindle 3G ($189 plus shipping and import fees, www.amazon.com) lets you search for and download new books from just about anywhere, thanks to its built-in 3G mobile data connection. Either way, you can have a new book to read in literally a minute without leaving your hammock. Added bonus: e-books are often cheaper than their paper counterparts.
- They’re versatile. I like both the Kobo and the Kindle, but my go-to e-reader is usually whatever tablet computer I happen to be using. The iPad 2 ($519 and up, www.apple.ca) reads e-books bought from Amazon, Kobo or Apple’s own iBook Store, and there are great Kobo and Kindle apps for Android tablets, such as the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 ($499, www.samsung.ca). Tablets are heavier, pricier and have a shorter battery life than a standalone e-reader, but they do tons of other stuff too, from surfing the Web to playing videos. So leave the laptop at home. You were going to do that anyway, right?
