Postby mcthulhu » Sat Dec 01, 2018 10:28 pm
The question doesn't make much sense to me as an either-or choice, since I have tons of physical books and tons of ebooks -- many thousands of each, since I've been collecting books for a long, long time. I'm comfortable reading in various formats, and can get immersed in a story regardless of the book's format. On occasion I alternate between reading a physical book at home and continuing to read an epub copy of the same book on my phone when I'm away from the physical book. Switching back and forth is trivial. I also read a lot on my iPad, and occasionally on one of our desktop computers, though that usually makes too many distractions available. My wife is likewise comfortable with reading on her phone now; but we both visit our local libraries at least once a week and have way too many physical books checked out.
On the other hand, I'm at a stage in my life when I need to do some decluttering and downsizing, and I've been working on replacing some of my book collection with epub versions and donating the physical copies. There are quite a few treasured books to which I'm emotionally attached, and which I'll never get rid of; but replacing the rest with ebooks is fine. If civilization collapses and I can no longer charge my phone, I'll still have those treasured hard copies to reread.
Ebooks do have a lot of logistical advantages. I like being able to carry a whole library around with me (we used to take half a suitcase of books on vacation, and carrying that much weight around got old fast). They don't take up physical space; and I can find a book a lot faster. There've been times when I had to search through bookcases and boxes on three floors of our house to find a specific book I wanted to read; searching on an ebook's title on a device goes a lot faster. The functional advantages are hard to deny, too, e.g. online dictionary lookups, and adjustable font sizes.
BTW, the difference between "preferred novel-reading medium" in the subject line and "preferred book-reading medium" in the survey title is interesting. Would there be a different answer for nonfiction or textbooks or reference books, since those may be read for different purposes?
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