Why I Still Rarely Read eBooks

It may surprise you to learn I rarely read eBooks. That’s right, despite the fact I sell practically all of my books in the eBook form, I don’t really read them. I do actually own a Kindle and I do sometimes flick through a few pages, but if you look at where I read most of my words you’ll find them within a classic paperback.

I once thought this was quite a strange thing. That’s what people tell me. But then I asked a few of my author friends what they thought. As it turns out, they feel the same way. Every single one of them owns some form of eReader, writes mainly for said eReader, yet sparingly reads from the aforementioned eReader.

So why do people like me still shun this revolution in reading?

In short, eBooks are more convenient to read than physical books in every way. No longer do you have to cram your favourite paperback into a bag and hope the bookmark stays in the right place. You can slip a tablet into a case and enjoy your day.

And despite all these advances they fail on one front. They’re not real books.

An eReader is nothing more than a really small laptop that you can only read books from. It’s a piece of technological genius. It’s still not a real book. That’s the crux of the matter. I can place a book on a virtual bookshelf, but I can’t put it on my real bookshelf. I can’t feel the pages beneath my fingers and I can’t smell that new book smell. Yes, I know you all love that smell, don’t tell me you haven’t noticed it!

A while back people predicted the Kindle would spell the doom of print books. Declining print book sales spelled the end of everything. So what happened? Sales actually went up year-on-year. There’s no sign of eBooks taking over from print books.

I for one am happy for that. I don’t want to see traditional reading fall by the wayside. I don’t want to disengage from staring at a screen all day to staring at another screen all evening. Reading is my break. It’s my chance to feel something new.

Reading from a screen will never give me or you that same experience. That, my friends, is why I will never prioritise eBooks above print books.

Until next time…

James Farner