What is your preferred novel-reading medium?

[AML]

Do you prefer to read novels on books and e-readers, which are generally easier on the eyes and slightly more expensive? Or do you prefer PDFs and other formats that you can read on phone/computer screens, which are a bit harder on the eyes but often cheaper?

I prefer my books made from dead trees, even if they are more expensive.

note: audio books purposely excluded.

[Speakeasy]

I prefer "dead tree" technology.

[Cèid Donn]

For novels or reference/learning materials, I prefer physical books, hands-down. I have used a Kindle since the Kindle Gen 1. I rely on e-books because on my budget it's hard to afford books, and also, I lack the space for them in my current living situation. When I could afford to live alone (when I was at uni and working a FT job at a grad school library), I had two rooms' worth of bookshelves. Now most of my books are in boxes, crates and storage bins. I can never find things easily and I dread adding to that chaos. So I try to get by with e-books (for novels and other fiction) and pdfs (for reference/learning materials) as much as I can, especially when they are free or much cheaper. But honestly, I have never grown to love digital reading materials and I don't think I ever will.

[drmweaver2]

At last count, in L1, I've read over 3000 books (A big portion of that relates to the question: what else do you do at night when you spend years in Adak, Alaska, Diego Garcia, or Sinop Turkey?). Well over 95% of them have been paper books.

I literally hate reading on a monitor or screen of any kind. When I do so, my eyes tire much more easily whether I've been reading on a Kindle, 10" Android or 32" monitor.

[neumanc]

I would prefer to use printed books. But the only time I get to reading is late in the evening when everybody is asleep. In order not to disturb my wife, I have a very dim light on my bedside table. Because of this, only my Kindle Paperwhite with background light can do. There are, of course, other advantages of using an e-reader, the in-built dictionary in particular. Furthermore, I don't want to see and feel how many pages I still have to go when reading thick novels. So I prefer my Kindle also because of this. Lastly, I like that I don't have to carry so much around when I'm away on business or on vacation. Since many classics, even whole collections of them, are free or available for a very low amount, you can carry with you whole libraries in your pocket for virtually no cost. I couldn't image to ever read a book on a computer screen.

[eido]

I have a complicated relationship with books.

On the one hand, I grew up with paper books and have many good memories filled with my imagination running wild from reading them. On the other, I'm afraid of marking them and bending them. I once had a book in my backpack in middle school that got soaked through because my water bottle wasn't properly capped, and I was devastated because to me, books are more to look at than to touch. It also pained me to take notes in the margins of books in high school. And I couldn't get over the fact I lost my copy of The Great Gatsby when it was my favorite book of the year as a junior and had been so expensive and lovely-looking.

Nowadays I crave those memories of youth (well, as of this post I'm still young, but...), so I seek out libraries almost as a refuge from modern, adult life. But because I try to be mature, I have hundreds of PDFs on my computer and have the Kindle app downloaded to it.

I have never owned a Kindle, and don't plan to. I never have enough time to read on the go if it's longer than a short news piece, so reading on the computer it is for me.

[zjones]

I'm surprised that books and Kindles aren't separate choices. Physical books and Kindles might feel the same -- but their functions are as different as reading on a computer screen compared to a print book.

I was a hardcore "print book" person (and I even had a preference for a specific size of paperback) until my husband got me Harry Potter on Kindle. He recently bought me a Kindle Paperwhite so I will stop stealing his, and it's even better than the basic Kindle. These are the things I love most about it:

- The backlight for reading in dim areas.
- Ability to change font size depending on how tired I am, how far away the book is, and my mood.
- Highlighting: I can highlight sentences quickly and easily, see a list of all my highlights, go to any highlighted portion to get context, and then remove highlights when I'm done.
- Looking up words in specific dictionaries: I can choose between a French-English dictionary and a French one.
- Quick access to a French-to-English translation: This is great for idioms and phrasal verbs.

On the one hand, I grew up with paper books and have many good memories filled with my imagination running wild from reading them. On the other, I'm afraid of marking them and bending them. I once had a book in my backpack in middle school that got soaked through because my water bottle wasn't properly capped, and I was devastated because to me, books are more to look at than to touch. It also pained me to take notes in the margins of books in high school. And I couldn't get over the fact I lost my copy of The Great Gatsby when it was my favorite book of the year as a junior and had been so expensive and lovely-looking.

I understand you completely. I hate seeing books that are scribbled all over, and I constantly get distracted by hokey pages while reading a book with a cracked spine. All my husband's books are crunched and water-damaged, but mine could sell on Amazon as "almost new". This obsession with having perfect books is another reason why I like the Kindle -- no cracked spine, and I can add and remove highlights whenever I want!

[coldrainwater]

At this stage in the game, I voted against print books and e-readers. I felt my preference needs to prioritize what I do now and am willing to do going forward. A number of gorgeous dead trees in Spanish lay about my residence as yet unexplored. I moved away from Kindle by converting my purchased books into other formats that were less restrictive and far more versatile (yielding amongst many other formats, mobi so I lost nothing in the process really). I enjoy reading in epub format and/or using a text editor (such as notepad++) when reading directly off of a desktop computer. EPUB is my current choice for smartphone reading. For challenging material, I found Kindle lookups to be a bit too slow for my taste and they did not offer the source options out of the box that I wanted. Tech advantages offered by pure text or a less restrictive epub style overpower print books in my case.

[tarvos]

I don't own a Kindle or e-reader, although I really want to. I prefer paper, actually, but I have no space for more paper books, really.

And honestly, any format will do as long as I can read a book :p

[MrsStarez]

I prefer a printed copy, as there’s just something nice about having something physical (in much the same way as I’d rather have a CD than a download, even though the latter is more practical). A printed book is much more forgiving of being dropped in the bath (about the only time I get time to myself to read) than a Kindle.

That said, I won a Kindle at work a year ago, and although I’ve only read a couple of books on it, it was so much more convenient on holiday. Years ago, we did a six-week tour of South America, which involved lots of coach travel and reading time. So a fair bit of luggage space was taken up by books which were finished quite quickly and then were carried for the rest of our travels.

In short, I know what I prefer, but physical and digital books each have their own place.