By 2013, even the most traditional of avid readers has been
exposed to the digital revolution of the e-book. Whether you’ve bravely
embraced the new literary medium or are still partial to the spine and dust
jacket world of tangibility, you’ve had the time to scope out several different
e-readers and form an opinion on where you stand. If you’re still unconvinced
that the e-book is one of the best chances that the written word has to survive
into the 21st century, here are 3 quick reminders to help persuade
you into checking them out:
E-books Are More Durable Than Hardcopies
The first time you heard about an e-book, you probably
wondered why you’d want to pay the full price of a novel for what is
essentially a text file, something that could be lost in the shuffle as easily
as any Word document or PDF that’s been buried in the depths of your hard
drive. But in an age where every e-book from Amazon or Barnes & Noble is
permanently stored in your online account with that company, you never have to
worry about losing a couple dozen books at once if you accidentally drop your
suitcase on the unsuspecting screen of your e-reader. Just register a new
device with your account, and every book you’ve ever purchased is available in
moments, like a Noah’s Ark full of John Grisham thrillers.
This kind of protection is unprecedented for bibliophiles,
who in the past didn’t have the option of re-downloading their library of hardcovers
if the moving company sent their boxes to Alaska by mistake, or if uncaring
hands broke the bindings on every paperback on the shelf.
E-books Are Always The Same Size
This is something that you might not think would bother you,
but after you’ve read your first 4 or 5 books on an e-reader, you may find it a
little awkward or irritating that so many books—especially those in a
series—come in a variety of sizes. You may have picked up the mass market paperback
of Game of Thrones in a grocery
store, gotten hooked, then gone to Barnes & Noble to get A Clash Of Kings and found that they
only have the larger, bulkier trade paperback, or only the hardcover. You don’t
want to wait until you can find one in the same size as the first book, so you
end up with a series of books that look severely mismatched on your shelf, like
you sent one of your kids to private school and the rest had to survive
downtown with the public.
A comfortable e-reader gives you everything in the same size
and dimension, and you never have to worry about lugging around an 800-page
behemoth that you didn’t actually want in hardcover.
E-books Offer A Positive Form of Instant Gratification
Most of the things in our culture that are instantly
available aren’t really good for you—fast food and reality television are
within reach 24 hours a day, but make them too much of a habit and your body
and mind will start to suffer for it. E-books, on the other hand, take
advantage of your momentary desires, but won’t leave you feeling burned out
afterward.
If you read a sample chapter of something on Amazon during
the commercials for CSI, you may find
yourself intrigued enough to want the whole book. But when you finally have
some free time later in the week to hit up a bookstore or order a paperback
online, you’ve forgotten all about that fleeting literary urge. With an e-book,
you can start reading past that sample chapter in moments, and take advantage
of that momentum to discover a book that you may have never gotten around to
otherwise. Let’s face it: it takes quite a bit of effort to read a book these
days, so you have to stoke that fire with whatever tools are available.
If you’re dead set against the approaching digital tide,
than these points probably won’t offer anything new to convince you. But if
you’re on the fence about e-books and e-readers, then you owe it to yourself to
take advantage of this incredible new medium. You’ll read more, you’ll
ultimately save a bit of money, and you’ll have a personal library at your
fingertips anywhere in the world.
Author
John is a tech blogger who cherishes every moment with his
Kindle. He writes for a variety of companies, including gadget insurer protectyourbubble.com,
who can help protect your e-reader from theft and damage.
