On the Issue of Choosing Between Physical Books and E-books

Recently, the number of books available as e-books has increased significantly.

I feel like the debate over whether physical books or e-books have more advantages has been going on for several years.

Physical books have advantages such as being easy to read, being able to be resold, being less tiring for the eyes, and being able to be lent or borrowed.
On the other hand, e-books have advantages such as being easy to carry, not taking up space, and allowing the font size to be adjusted.

Personally, I use a Kindle Paperwhite quite a bit for e-books.
It seems like an iPad would be convenient since it allows for annotations, but I haven't reached the point of buying one. I think about buying one, but end up not doing it.

On the other hand, there is a strong opinion that physical books have their own unique appeal. I can certainly understand that.

Regarding this issue of whether to choose physical books or e-books.
In reality, I use them quite differently depending on the situation.
I don't think that it has to be physical books or that it has to be e-books.

However, I feel there is one point that hasn't been pointed out very often.

First of all, for books where the visual appearance is meaningful, such as those often found on Amazon with the note
“Suitable for reading on devices with large displays such as tablets.”
I often buy them as physical books.

Also, there are 'print replica' versions where the font and design are the same as the physical book, but since the text is too small to read easily on a Kindle Paperwhite, I often choose the physical book for these as well.

On the other hand, for books that are available as Kindle e-books, such as paperbacks and novels, I often buy the e-book version.

Personally, the difference in readability between physical books and e-books, such as eye strain, has become much smaller.

There is another major feature of e-books that I think is not talked about much.

That is, e-books allow you to focus on the text itself without preconceptions more than physical books do.

When reading e-book versions on a Kindle Paperwhite, every book basically uses the font and size I have set myself. Basically, the appearance at a glance is almost the same for every book. For some reason, the line spacing and margins might be slightly different, but fundamentally, it doesn't change much.

This means that whether it is an old book or a book from this year, once it is digitized, the appearance at a glance is exactly the same.

Also, in the case of e-books, there is a characteristic where it is difficult to intuitively grasp where you are in the whole book. You can set it to show the remaining pages, but it is hard to visualize. With a physical book, you are turning the pages, so you can somewhat tell how many pages are left by the feeling in your hands.

I have a feeling that these characteristics might allow you to get closer to the sensibility of the author who wrote the text by focusing on the 'words' themselves.

Physical books have characteristics other than the 'words' of the text, such as cover design, font design, paper texture, and the placement of illustrations and diagrams.

These can sometimes be important elements of a book. Finished physical books each have a different texture, and there is naturally a merit to physical books that have wonderful work by book designers.

However, this might actually be creating a preconception before reading the text.

On the other hand, e-books have almost no difference in texture other than the written words.
There might be a cover design on the first page, but once you skip it, you basically don't see it again.

I think the starting point for an author creating text is the work of spinning 'words' in front of a word processor.
When the author is writing this text, they might be groaning in front of the word processor, or they might be grinning, or they might be smoking a lot of cigarettes.

In the sense that the words enter directly into the starting point where the author spins the 'words', I actually feel that e-books have an advantage.

The sensation of encountering 'words' without preconceptions is something I feel especially when reading old books as e-books.

Old physical books can have small fonts, be difficult to read, or, if they are used, have discolored pages or strange smells. I think there is a certain charm to that being their personality. However, those things inevitably become preconceptions before you even encounter the author's 'words'.

On the other hand, when reading with e-books, there is almost no difference in elements other than the 'words' between this year's books and old books.
In fact, I sometimes realize that older books have incredibly easy-to-understand writing. It is quite common that older books have fewer unnecessary twists and are more refined and concise (though that is not always the case).

Meanwhile, recent books have beautiful bindings, and various efforts are put into the design of the books themselves. Even so, when converted to e-books, that texture is basically gone.
Conversely, that allows you to focus on the 'words'.

When you look purely at the words, you might realize that they are actually saying a lot of unnecessary things, or the pros and cons become quite clear, and in a sense, you might see a cruel contrast where you think, 'Actually, this older book is more refined and easier to understand!'

So, from the perspective that you can focus on the 'words' without preconceptions, I am stating that e-books actually have quite significant merits, and that we should use physical books and Kindle books effectively; that is the general idea.

With that said, 'Make today the best day ever’

Postscript

Prompted by C. Diem's feedback, a sequel has been created after about a year. Please check this out as well~