# Do you prefer reading books on a tablet or having a book in your hand? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2016, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029 "2016-01-23T22:46:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/1 "2016-01-23T22:46:55Z")
For some reason, I still like the feel of an actual book in my hand with pages that I have to turn myself. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/2 "2016-01-23T22:50:12Z")
I gave tablet an edge because I’m getting old and like enlarging the print size. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/3 "2016-01-23T23:06:03Z")
Acquiring books for my gadget is easier and I can carry many more around with me. I rarely if ever read an electronic book when I am at home. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/4 "2016-01-23T23:26:57Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I gave tablet an edge because I’m getting old and like enlarging the print size. Same here. I still like the feel and especially the scent of old books but even with trifocals it’s so much more comfortable to be able to adjust the font size. Also a giant book collection is a real hassle when you have to move. I find the minimalism of a Paperwhite very appealing, too. ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/5 "2016-01-23T23:30:57Z")
Still holding out. The tablet is for surfing the net while in bed. A book has pages that you have to manually turn. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/6 "2016-01-23T23:37:07Z")
They both have their advantages and disadvantages. Though I prefer a dedicated e-reader (like my Kindle Paperwhite) to doing extended reading on a tablet. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/7 "2016-01-23T23:37:27Z")
book I - hate - electronic reading for some reason e reading seems artificial and rushed but a book seems exactly right, slow and comfortable ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Krupe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@Leo\_Krupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Krupe)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/8 "2016-01-23T23:44:31Z")
I like books. It’s better to hold a real book in my hands, and sometimes I’ll read a book that the author inscribed, which makes it even more special. How are authors going to sign e-books and make it feel the same as when you buy a hardcover book and have them autograph it for you? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/9 "2016-01-24T00:10:45Z")
I slightly prefer books. They feel comfortable in my hands. The down side is a tall stack of books on the bedside table. Kindle holds so many books in a tiny space. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/10 "2016-01-24T00:13:48Z")
Electronics are better for travel. In the everyday world, the book is the perfect delivery vehicle for words. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/11 "2016-01-24T00:21:38Z")
In my experience, a lightweight e-reader makes for much more comfortable one-handed reading, assuming the book is larger than a pamphlet. It’s also more convenient for me to carry around a single device for mobile internet access plus reading than it is to carry an internet device and several books. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/12 "2016-01-24T00:29:12Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Electronics are better for travel. In the everyday world, the book is the perfect delivery vehicle for words. Yup. The advantage of ordering up a next book to read on vacation and not carrying extra books around? Big. But I prefer books, prefer browsing the local shop, prefer them getting my dollars than Amazon. Even if I have to order the book I want and then return to get it. [Quite the excellent technology.](http://lithub.com/dystopia-and-the-book/) > [@](#): > > Speaking to the American Booksellers Association in 1989, science fiction demi-god Isaac Asimov asked his audience to imagine a sci-fi information storage device that, “Can go anywhere, and is totally portable. Something that can be started and stopped at will along its data stream, allowing the user to access the information in an effective, easy manner.” After what I imagine was a dramatic pause, Asimov answered his own sci-fi riddle: “We have this device. It’s called a book.” Powered by ambient light too. And made of renewable resources. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/13 "2016-01-24T00:36:35Z")
Both types of book have their advantages and disadvantages. I think I’ll be keeping both sorts into the foreseeable future. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/14 "2016-01-24T02:06:57Z")
My eyes suck. I blow up the words on the page until there’s only about thirty on the screen at a time… while I am capable of reading text at a much smaller size, I don’t enjoy it. Not enjoying it is OK if I’m buying a reference book for use at work, but not for prolonged continuous reading. I honestly don’t think I’ll ever buy another paper book for pleasure reading. It’s a little sad because I love the feel and smell of paper, especially old books. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/15 "2016-01-24T02:53:58Z")
I’ve had a Kindle for 3 or 4 years now, have read exactly two books on it before shoving it in a drawer. I prefer a real book. However, my near-vision eyesight seems to be worsening at an alarming rate. I may need to fire up that Kindle again. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/16 "2016-01-24T03:02:51Z")
Ebooks are inconvenient because you can’t flip through them quickly to find a particular passage. That’s an occasional inconvenience, though, and outweighed by the huge convenience of not having to hold up the doorstop-sized books I tend to read. I prefer tablets. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/17 "2016-01-24T03:04:45Z")
In theory, I prefer e-readers and PDFs because I can have all my books everywhere and so on. In practice, I don’t think I’ve ever finished a non-physical book. I’ve finished plenty of short stories and articles on the PC, but I just cannot read novels in an electronic format. It has to have physical pages. There’s no real reason for this, it’s just e-readers make me magically lose interest in whatever I’m reading. The other thing is reference manuals like D&D. They’re so much easier when you have physical pages to flip through. Sure, with the webpages and PDFs you have search, but I find a few bookmarks much better. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/18 "2016-01-24T03:10:13Z")
My library uses a program called Overdrive, which lets me read books on my Android tablet. Maybe it’s the program, or the tablet, but I have to read the book one sequential page after another – no skipping ahead, no flipping to the index to see what other page I saw that name on, etc. I don’t know if things would be easier with a genuine e-reader, but what I have right now is not user-friendly. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/19 "2016-01-24T03:11:34Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > For some reason, I still like the feel of an actual book in my hand with pages that I have to turn myself. This is invariably said by older people, who have a mental connection to their past and reading books when e-readers weren’t an option. What I think is that you mostly actually really like the feeling of _nostalgia_ that holding a book and turning pages generates in you, more than the feeling itself. I’d bet if you studied school children and gave them equal access to both versions of any type of book they had to read from the beginning, not many would say the same. Although I’m also at least old enough to have read books back then too, I decidedly never liked the tactile feeling of holding on to wads of paper (I actually appreciated when I had a book like a textbook that could lay flat on its own without being held - I also preferred the feeling of waxier/glossy pages to raw paper). Needless to say, when e-readers came about I got on that right away and haven’t looked back. ---
**Author:** ![Memnon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Memnon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Memnon)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029/20 "2016-01-24T03:21:59Z")
There are lots of good reasons to read from a tablet: 1. Books are considerably cheaper on tablet. Indeed, books on which the copyright has expired are often ridiculously cheap. For instance, I downloaded Wilkie Collins’ ‘The Moonstone’ and ‘The Woman in White’ absolutely free. If I’d bought them in Borders it would probably have cost me about 15 bucks. So after a while, tablets pay for themselves. 2. The iPad Kindle app has a built-in dictionary so you can immediately look up unfamiliar words. 3. You can adjust the print size if you have poor eyesight. 4. You can annotate e-books without ruining them. Unfortunately, for me, they’re all outweighed by the fact that reading a proper book just _feels_ better, so I rarely use a tablet. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-prefer-reading-books-on-a-tablet-or-having-a-book-in-your-hand/744029.md?page=2)