Reading my First Paper Book in Years
I recently published a YouTube video about why I prefer e-books to paper books. At the end of that video, I promised I would check out the dark side, and try reading my first paper book in many years.
The one-sentence summary is: while I like the idea of having a shelf full of books, and paper books are handy for letting other people borrow them, I still think digital books are 10,000 times more convenient.
I read a really wonderful book called How Stella Learned to Talk. My first day reading a paper book, I noticed two things right off the bat. First, I found myself slightly straining my neck when I would get to the bottom of a page. On my iPad, I use a scrolling view, so I can always keep the line I’m reading wherever feels most comfortable. With the paper book, I had to either lift the book up a bit or look down farther to read the last few lines. Part of this is probably just how I hold books, but it was still slightly inconvenient. But that night is when I had a realization that made very seriously considering buying a digital copy of the book.
I was really digging this book, and the day I started reading it, I really wanted to keep going. So when it was time for bed, I did a bit of reading, but then my wife Macy wanted to go to sleep, so she asked me to turn the lamp off. Normally, no big deal, I switch my iPad to dark mode and keep reading until I’m tired. But with this book, I couldn’t keep reading unless I wanted to go to a different room. I experimented with dimming the lamp, but we couldn’t find a balance where I could easily see the words and she could easily fall asleep. So I just didn’t get to read in bed anymore, unless I did it well before she was ready to sleep.
In fact, I learned that lighting is just sort of always an issue with books. It’s common for me to lie on the couch in our living room to read a book, with just the natural window light coming in. With this book, I learned that I much preferred having a light on behind me or facing away from the window so it could light the pages. This isn’t a huge deal, but it was something I noticed I had to think about when sitting down to read, whereas before, I could just sit down wherever.
I also had to think about water. One morning I was sitting in the backyard with my dog and reading, and it started sprinkling. On my phone or iPad, I’d be fine with this. A tiny bit of water on the screen can be wiped off and wouldn’t be a big deal. But with paper, even a few small drops could permanently damage the book. It was all just extra stuff to think about.
Finally, I didn’t have a good way of taking notes with this book. This is the type of book I would’ve really enjoyed highlighting and making notes, but I didn’t want another object to keep up with and carry around every time I was reading, and also, I didn’t like the idea of permanently changing the book. I know that it’s my book and I can highlight in it if I want, but then I feel like if I utilized the paper book benefit of letting someone borrow it, then my highlights or notes will influence how they interpret the book. It’s like if someone let you borrow a movie, but they had already recorded their commentary over it first. So unfortunately, I didn’t get to make any notes or do my normal routine if highlighting any key passages that stuck out to me or that I think I might want to remember later.
What I do really love though, is that I can let others borrow this book. This book, in particular, was really helpful and taught me a lot, and I’d recommend it to any pet owner. So I’m glad that I’ll have the ability to lend it to friends and family who want to learn more about talking animals or get tips on how to teach their pet to communicate.
None of the issues I experienced with my paper book are really deal breakers on their own, and most of the are just little inconveniences, but taken together, they seem to make reading a bit more stressful and harder, since there are a bunch of other little extra things I need to think about before I could enjoy my book. Like I mentioned in my video, none of this is to say that paper reading is inferior; if you like it, this isn’t to persuade you, even though I think you should try digital books if you haven’t. If you have tried both and still prefer paper, I’d love to hear why—leave a comment or send me an email!
