The things that I prefer about paper books

Recently I've found myself preferring actual paper books to my Kindle. I still love my Kindle and I won't be turning my back on it, but my preference at the moment is definitely for a real physical book.

Here are some of the reasons why:

I just really enjoy the sensation of reading a physical book. Holding it and feeling the weight, turning the pages, putting in the bookmark, playing with the remaining pages while I'm reading. 

I find it really difficult to remember the books that I've read on the Kindle. I read quickly, and without a physical reminder of the title and author every time I grab a book I find that it's easily forgotten. I make an association in my mind between the book cover and the book itself which just isn't there in the digital format. Reading every book in the same text size and font also makes it harder to distinguish between them.

Photo credit Florencia Viadana via Unsplash

I like a visual reminder of how long is left in the book. And it's good to be able to flip ahead to see if I'm near the end of a chapter when I'm running out of reading time.

Some books have a map or a family tree at the beginning that I want to easily refer to. Or sometimes I just want to flip back to an earlier part of the book to check something.

I like having a nice big stack of to be read books by the side of my bed. It's harder to visualise on a Kindle even though I do have a large to be read collection!

I've started to enjoy collecting actual books and building up my bookshelves. I have lots of books on my Kindle that I've purchased, but I feel as though I don't really 'own' them somehow, and they could disappear at any moment. I'm much more likely to buy a physical book than a digital one - most of the books that I read on my Kindle are free or cheap downloads.

I don't need to worry about the battery on a book - my Kindle is getting quite old now and I know that the battery doesn't last nearly as long as it used to. And even though it is on the old side, I still worry about it being stolen if I leave it in the car or out on display.

It also takes my poor old Kindle a few seconds to warm up when I open it which irritates me and the adverts annoy me. (Now as I write this I'm wondering if I'm actually just angling for a new Kindle!)

I find it much easier on my eyes to read a physical book, especially when I'm reading in bed. I do appreciate the extra light on my Kindle in the evening, but I find that it definitely puts more strain on my eyes.

I enjoy looking across at my bookshelves and seeing actual books. Seeing the book reminds me of when I read it, especially if it's one that I remember reading on holiday or during an important period in my life.

Photo credit Gülfer ERGİN via Unsplash

But there are also many, many reasons that I love my Kindle, and I'll be sharing them in a future post!

Are you a paper or a digital reader?