The Advantages of Hardbacks and Paperbacks Over E-books

The digital age comes with lots of new inventions. Those drastically change the way we live, work and entertain ourselves. The new technologies impacted greatly the way we read as well. This does not include only the tons on information that is now freely accessible on websites all around the planet, but also reading novels and ebooks.

Ever since Amazon released the first Kindle e-book reader, and digital books have taken up a considerable portion of the publishing market, there has been an ongoing debate which medium, the old fashioned paper book or the electronic alternative, is better for you. Even though ebooks have many advantages and they are still evolving every day, there is little doubt left in the minds of specialists as well as the general public that reading on paper is much better for you. This is not simply a sentiment expressed by trend of people resisting the new thing, but has some very sound foundations in:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• More practical concerns about preservation of knowledge

According to several independent research projects which were widely published, including on trustworthy media outlets such as The Guardian, the human brain absorbs information much better when reading on paper in comparison to reading from an e-book such as Kindle. This is the neuroscience argument For reading on paper.

From a psychological point of view, there are many other studies that suggest reading a well written novel on paper stimulates those parts of the consciousness that are actually related to human experiences. That means nothing short of the simple fact that when you read about the exploits of your favorite character on hardback or paperback edition of a book, it is more or less similar to your brain and consciousness as when you actually experience the things described in the story. That is why reading is said to improve our critical thinking, empathy and many other qualities and make up a model human being. Why the results are not so impressive when the reading is done on a Kindle might have something to do with the aforementioned reduced absorption of information from this type of media.

Last, but not least, there is another concern, which is well described by Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco in the book “This is not the end of the book”. Professor Eco points out that while we still have well preserved books that are centuries old, it is nearly impossible to read files from our computers from the 80s, unless we go through a lot of trouble. So, there comes the conclusion that paper-based books are still better for preserving information than digital ones.

Probably the only drawback of a good old fashioned library is that it would a hell of a lot harder to pack and move it when you are going through a home removal, while you can store thousands of volumes at one time on your digital reading device. Books, like knowledge, are heavy – and wonderful at the same time.