I love to read books and maybe you love to read as well. And when you want to buy new books, you have to make a decision. Are you going to buy physical books or e-books?
In this blog post, I explain what the pros and cons are of physical books or e-books. And in case you were wondering what I prefer, I read them both. Sometimes I buy physical books and sometimes I read on my e-reader.
Note: In this blog post I will only be talking about books and e-books. I am not going to talk about audiobooks.
Phsyical books or e-books
Pros of physical books
It looks pretty on your shelves
Some book covers are really pretty that you just want to buy the physical book just for the cover. And the be honest, I buy books just because of the cover. Even though I have no idea if I will like this book or not.
But one of my dreams is to have a wall filled with bookshelves. Just because it looks so pretty.
Shopping is an experience
You have to buy e-books online, but I really enjoy going to the bookstore and spend at least one hour in the store. You can actually touch the books and shopping for books is an amazing experience. I remember when I went to a book event and spend a few hours at the event, just to find new books. And it was amazing.
You can touch the book
I love to touch books and just hold it. I love it when I turn over to the next page. When you have an e-reader you can’t do those things. You can’t touch the book, you can’t smell it, you just have to click on the screen for the next page.
Pros of e-books
Weight
I remember I was reading a big book and I used to take a book with me to uni. But this book was just too heavy. But when you have an e-reader, you won’t have that problem again. An e-reader is very light and you can bring thousands of books with you. So if you are not in the mood to read that specific book anymore, you just pick something else to read.
It is better for the environment
Let’s be honest, buying books is not that great for the environment. And of course every now and then you have to recharge the battery of your e-reader too, but the battery can last for months. It is not like a phone battery or anything.
It is cheaper
So I am from the Netherlands and I also read Dutch books and they are pretty expensive. New books are 20 euros. English books are cheaper to buy, which is great, but e-books are cheaper. And you are still supporting the writers of those books because you are not downloading them illegally. And here in the Netherlands, we have a sort of Netflix subscription but for books (and audiobooks). So you have to pay 10 euros every month and you get access to more than 500.000 books, which is amazing.
So these are the pros and cons of physical books and e-books. Do you prefer to read e-books or physical ones?