So for today’s post I decided to blog about my thoughts on real books vs e-book readers as I feel that not everyone knows the pros of e-book readers over proper books, or feels that if they get an e-reader that it will mean they aren’t allowed to buy proper books anymore when this isn’t the case at all! I for one, love my e-reader, but there is no way I would give up on buying actual books either.

This post was actually inspired by a conversation I had with my Mum the other day about her Kindle, she was saying how, as much as she loves actual books, she really loves her Kindle and finds it great for travelling or when tired, or in a place where you can just prop it up. The reason that it was this that inspired me was that she was dead set against getting an e-book reader and kept telling me she didn’t want one and wouldn’t use one…. but I made an educated guess she would actually enjoy one if she did get one and would use it… so I decided to get her one! It took a short while for her to warm to it, but once she did, she wouldn’t be without it now and is constantly asking me to put new books on it for her!

I adore buying proper books, I love how they look, how they feel, the fact you can physically see my collection, the page turning motion while reading etc etc… but there are definitely plus points to using an e-reader too!

I got a Kindle and I got one because I wanted it, it wasn’t a surprise gift or anything like that, and I am more than happy with my decision!

There is no reason why owning and e-reader means you can’t buy books too, I certainly do both (actually bought a proper book today in fact), and in some cases I have the same book on my kindle and the physical copy! This happens mostly if I forget I have bought/downloaded a certain book onto my kindle and then see it cheap and decide to pick it up (that is in fact what happened in the picture above), but as I said before, I like the fact I can see my collection of physical copies so if there is a book I have gotten cheap on my kindle which I decide I love, I generally want to own the physical copy also!

The main “obvious” plus points of an e-reader are things like, how lightweight they are for travel so that you don’t have to carry a load of books with you if you are going on holiday, or even just away for a day or somewhere you have to be careful of weight. The fact they are so light makes them ideal for reading in bed especially when you are tired as  you don’t have to try and struggle to hold up a heavy book and turn pages. Also things like if you are going for a longer holiday, or are on a limited budget, you can get so many free/cheap books for e-readers that you can read as much as you like and you don’t have to worry about running out of reading material! Most e-readers will also fit into nearly every bag or even larger pockets which again makes them hugely portable.

Some points people may not realise or may not have though of which I have discovered since owning my e-reader are things like, a lot of the free/cheap books you can get for your reader, you CANNOT buy as a physical copy, as they do not exist! This in itself limits your reading as just from this fact alone you are missing out on so many fabulous stories! Or if you think about simple things like hand cream…. hand cream will stain/ruin your physical books but it isn’t a problem with an e-reader – this was a big thing for me as I put hand cream on before bed but then want to read.

One of the biggest things for me has to be how fast you can get books onto the readers though, as it takes literally less than 10 seconds. This came in very handy when I had just started a new series so only had the first book, but I knew fairly fast I was going to adore it and wanted to read the rest of the series, so I ordered the physical copies online, but when I was just a few hours from finishing the first book I checked when my order of the next books would be arriving as I needed to read the next one straight away and it said it would be 1-2 weeks!! There is no way I could have coped away from this series for so long! So I went online and bought the next one cheap for my kindle and could start reading as soon as I finished that first one! I can be a little impatient when it comes to reading the next book in a series (as I think most people are), so that was so handy that day!

I also like keeping my physical books in as good of a condition as I can, so to me I am not always happy chucking a book into a bag and dragging it around with me, so in general to me, my physical books are for reading at home, or places I can hang onto it, and my kindle is for work, or holidays, or going places I can just chuck it back into my bag and don’t have to worry about it.

At the end of the day you should read in whatever way feels most comfortable to you, as the whole point of reading is to enjoy the story as much as you can! I just wanted to give you a bit of insight as to why a lot of us love their e-readers as well as physical books, and maybe have someone maybe change their negative thoughts about e-readers after realising some plus points about them you hadn’t thought about before.

That’s all for now, happy reading!