All of us enjoy holding in our hands a beautiful physical book. I certainly do. Is there a greater pleasure than running one’s fingers over the cover, smelling the unique sent of new pages, caressing the rectangular, solid heft of it? It is an anticipation of pleasure, the pleasure that will come from the reading, the enjoyment, the remembering, the re-reading.
I have read a study that says that people remember stories and details of books better when they read a physical book compared to reading an ebook. That may well be true because it is easier to flip back and forth, return to favourite sections and memorise sentences and funny quotes in a physical book. It is possible to do all this in an ebook too, but it is less instinctive; one needs to figure it out and get used to it.
For years I had not been able to embrace the idea of reading anything other than a physical book which, to me, is one of the loveliest objects in the entire universe. I would admire the spines on my shelves, have discussions about which covers were my favourite, why they were so, endlessly rearrange the titles to my satisfaction.
I would scoff at the notion of a device that could contain books. Where would the spines be? How would I be able to see the books I admired stacked up on a shelf? How would people visiting know who I am unless they saw the books I read?
One day my parents bought me an e-reader. I thought it was useless. But then I saw my father reading on it, buying books on it, enjoying himself. Our apartment is full of his books. Even the bathrooms are stacked high with physical books used as small tables for a vase or a knick knack.
Something changed in me. I became keen to understand what the ebook offered that the world of physical books could not. (I already was an expert in what the physical book could offer that the ebook could not.) Once I had found out for myself, I fell in love with my Kindle.
Here is what I found out.
You need to go to a bookshop to buy a physical book. Often, what you are looking for is not available. You can then order online and wait for the book to turn up. But you know that irresistible urge, that impulse you have to want to buy a book and start reading it at that very moment? Ebooks satisfy that hunger. Sitting at home, with a few clicks, I can now have delivered to me within thirty seconds any book that I want. I can do it in the middle of the night, in a different country, while travelling on a bus, while waiting for school to begin. Besides, an ebook of a particular title is often cheaper than its physical counterpart. Could anything be more gratifying? As the Guardian Children’s books Book Elves say : Happy Reading! (if you’re not a site member, sign up to find out more about Book Elves).
Hmm, travelling. I travel often and go for holidays to countries far away from my own, which is India. All airlines have restrictions on how much baggage you can carry. Before I fell in love with my Kindle, a large part of my allotted baggage weight would be consumed by books. There would also be the worry: have I chosen the right ones? Will I run out of stock? If I am in a country that does not have many shops that stock a variety of English books (such as, say, Russia or Holland or Turkey or Spain or China), what shall I do? Oh, the anxiety! The Kindle helped me get rid of that. I now buy ebooks before travelling. The e-reader is lighter than a paperback, and I can carry in my hand. I have much more space left in my suitcase to pack clothes and shoes and whatever other stuff I like. And if I have run out of stock? Wherever I am in the world, with a few clicks, I can buy new books and begin to read them within half a minute. Is that not a huge blessing?
So while I continue to adore physical books, their feel, smell, spines, display, all of that, I am a total convert to the joys and advantages of reading ebooks. The two coexist happily in the world of my reading. Each offers something that the other cannot. Each is unable to give me what the other can.