My wife and I have been reading and buying ebooks since we purchased our first iPads in 2011. It’s our preferred reading method.
Recently, it’s become somewhat of a fad in productivity circles for some to advocate a return to reading print books instead of ebooks. They argue that reading print books is more “meaningful.”
I disagree. I find reading ebooks just as meaningful as reading print books. E-books also have advantages that are not available in print books.
The Unique Advantages of eBooks
There are several advantages to reading electronic books which do not exist in print books:
• Adjustable font. Not everyone has perfect vision. For those with not-so-perfect vision, adjusting the font size on an ebook is a considerable advantage to make it easier to read. This advantage isn’t available with print books. I read more books because I can make the font larger.
• Adjustable background. You can change the reading background of ebooks to fit your environment. When my wife reads in bed, she uses a night background (white text on black) that emits almost no light. If she read a print book, she’d have to turn on a bright light on her side of the bed while I tried to sleep.
• Cheaper than print books. Ebooks are almost always cheaper than paper books. Most ebooks cost several dollars less than the print version, sometimes $5.00 or more less expensive. If you buy many books, that adds up to a lot of money saved over time.
• Instant access. Digital books can be downloaded and accessed instantly, allowing readers to start reading immediately. You don’t have to wait for (or pay for) shipping.
You don’t have to spend time and money going to a bookstore and searching for the book you’re looking for. Instead, you can order the book online and instantly deliver it to your e-reader.
• Syncing across devices. With digital books, readers can easily switch between devices and continue reading where they left off, making it convenient for those who read on multiple devices.
I typically read on an iPad, but I have two iPads, an 11-inch one and a 12.5-inch one. Sometimes, I read on one, and sometimes, I read on the other. Because digital books sync across devices, I can always start at the page where I left off on the other device.
A few days ago, I was waiting to see a doctor and reading a book on my iPhone. I could pick up my reading right where I left it on my iPad.
• Ability to search for specific keywords or phrases within the book. If I’m looking for something specific in a book, I don’t have to depend on an extensive index being present, which many books don’t include. Instead, I can search the book for keywords or phrases to find the section I’m looking for.
• Syncing highlights with the Readwise service. Readwise is one of my most valuable services, and I think it’s worth every penny I spend on a subscription.
When I make highlights in my ebooks, they sync directly to the Readwise service. They’re searchable in Readwise, downloaded to my Obsidian app, and indexed to my DEVONthink database. I can search for highlights in any of these apps.
Readwise delivers 15 random highlights to my e-reader daily as part of my morning routine. These remind me of ideas that I thought were important enough to highlight. I’ll often consider one of those highlights as a theme for my day. Or, I might use a highlight to inspire a new blog post. That’s a service that’s not available with paper books.
• Borrow books instantly from libraries. My wife is a voracious reader of novels. Fortunately for our budget, almost all of her books are borrowed from online libraries, thus saving a considerable amount of money if she had to buy all of those books. By borrowing and returning them online, she also saves time and money by not having to pick up and drop off books at our city library.
I’ve also borrowed many ebooks from the library. I can highlight a borrowed book, and the highlights are saved in Readwise, so I can go back and look at those highlights and search for the highlights, even though I don’t own the book.
• Portability. With electronic devices, readers can carry scores of books wherever they go.
I remember taking trips where I had to decide which of the one to three books I would take on that trip. I wasn’t sure which ones I might feel like reading, but I had to limit the number of books I took because of the space in my luggage and their weight.
With my iPad, I never have to worry about that. I can take my entire library with me whenever I go on a trip.
• Storage. Ebooks also solve the book storage problem passionate readers face. Ebooks take up no physical space, allowing you to build a massive library without filling up bookshelves.
I once had an extensive theological library. Because I had so many books, I had to buy multiple bookcases and place them in almost every room in our home.
Now that I’m downsizing and living in an apartment, I’m thankful that I don’t have all those books to store and all the bookcases required to store them. E-books take up no physical space, allowing you to build a massive library without filling up bookshelves. I’ve been replacing print books with ebooks for the past several years.
• Interactivity. Some digital books include interactive elements such as videos, animations, and hyperlinks that enhance the reading experience and engagement with the content. Often, footnotes will pop up from the bottom of the book and then go back down. There’s no need to go to the back of the book, where many print books keep footnotes. Also, you can instantly follow links to other active sources or places in the same book. You can access a dictionary if you encounter a word you don’t understand.
• Environmentally friendly. Reading digital books helps to reduce paper waste and the environmental impact of producing and transporting physical books. If you’re concerned about the environment, reading ebooks is one way to contribute to the health of our planet.
Some Recent Arguments I’ve Encountered Arguing We Ought to Read Print Books Instead of eBooks
1. “Analog Books Are Inherently More “Meaningful” Than eBooks.”
Lately, I’ve heard a mantra about the relative merits of analog versus digital tools: “Use digital for efficiency; use analog for meaningfulness.” It is stated as though it’s an established truth.
A primary source of this advice is Chris Bailey, who wrote in How to Calm Your Mind: “Here’s the trick to this advice: when we want to do an activity efficiently, we should do it digitally, and when we want our actions to be meaningful, we should do things the analog way.” (See my Review of How To Calm Your Mind by Chris Bailey.)
Bailey indicates that he always feels calmer, more centered, and less stressed when reading an analog book instead of a digital book. This conclusion is based solely on his personal subjective feelings. He presents no scientific evidence to support his claim.
Many people, including me, feel they can focus, feel centered and calm, and think deeply about the material they read in digital format. The nature of the tool makes no difference.
Whether digital or analog tools, including books, are more meaningful is a subjective experience. Tools are not inherently more meaningful or more stressful. See my post, Debunking the Digital vs. Analog Debate: Meaningfulness is Subjective, Not Tool-Dependent.
2. “You can make helpful notes while reading print books, which are superior to saving mere highlights.”
This argument assumes that reading ebooks and taking notes about books are mutually exclusive. But of course, they are not. Nothing stops an ebook reader from making highlights and taking notes on a piece of paper or a digital device while reading an ebook.
Reading ebooks does not prohibit readers from taking notes about a book. One of the proponents of this type of thinking reads print books but records his book notes in a digital mind-mapping app. If he can read an analog print book and take notes in a digital format, why can’t those who read digital books take notes in either a digital or analog format?
Indeed, one cannot take notes in the margins of ebooks like in print books. However, I found those margin notes to have limited value. I rarely went back to a book to read the notes I took. And sometimes, when I tried to find notes I had made, I had difficulty locating them in a book. And, of course, if I want to take notes, I’m not required to write them in print book margins; I can read in an ebook and take notes on paper or a digital device.
Unless one goes to the added trouble of scanning all of one’s handwritten notes and transferring them to a digital format, there is no way to search those notes. Notes directly added to a digital device are searchable without additional hassle or effort.
3. “You have less understanding when reading ebooks because you speed up or skim while reading an ebook, but slow down and thoughtfully consider what you read in a print book.”
In my experience and the experience of many others, this is not true. I feel no inclination or compulsion to read faster because I’m reading in a digital format. Why would I? It makes no difference to my reading speed whether I read in an analog or digital format.
I customize my reading speed to the nature of the material and what I intend to accomplish. I typically read novels more quickly than non-fiction. When I read non-fiction, I typically slow down and think more deeply about my reading.
Take Advantage of the Benefits of Ebooks
The advantages of ebooks far outweigh those of print books. Ebooks are cheaper, more convenient, and more accessible than print books. They also offer a number of features that print books do not, such as adjustable font size, searchability, and the ability to sync across devices.
Sometimes, those arguing for a return to paper books claim that “scientific studies” support their conclusions. However, those studies are neither substantial nor comprehensive nor sufficient to base broad conclusions on.
Meaningfulness is completely subjective to the individual. If you find reading paper books more meaningful, that’s great, and you should read print books. But the fact that you find them more meaningful says nothing about whether anyone else finds them more meaningful. It’s an individual preference. Please don’t tell others what they should find meaningful.