Do you prefer reading books on a tablet or having a book in your hand?

[TonySinclair]

@RikWriter

I like being able to carry around 100s of books on a tablet or smart phone. It’s also much easier to read a book on a tablet while using a treadmill or a stairmaster.

Or while driving.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

I wrote, “I pretty much only use real books because I like that best.” I really prefer the tangible, tactile experience of having a book in my hands. It’s also easier to flip back and forth, as needed (and I need to a lot). I will also confess to being a pulp-paperback-aroma junkie.

[blondebear]

I read stuff online all day long–message boards, newspaper and magazine articles, blogs, etc. But I prefer my books to be “real”. One of the big reasons is that books provide a brief respite and escape from the sometimes overwhelming presence of digital media.

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

I love books. I’ve got a two story library in my home, complete with a rolling ladder to access higher shelves.

But the Kindle sure is convenient,especially when travelling.

So 95% of the time, I favor it.

Yet, it’s so much easier to flip around back and forth to various places in an actual book. And I hate how pictures and charts and tables just don’t work well on my Kindle.

I’m waiting for a better Kindle to be invented before I shut down my library completely.

[Skinnybones_Lampshade]

Well, my answer isn’t exactly there: I much prefer books, but I read on my tablet at least as often because it is much more convenient to have it with me when I’m out.

I don’t know if it’s just that I grew up having so many lovely hours lying on my bed in my room on a rainy or snowy day reading Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Agatha Christie and Enid Blyton books, Superman and Richie Rich comics - all the way back to The Bobbsey Twins and even Honey Bunch and Norman, but I just don’t seem able to feel the same deep contentment when I read my tablet.

I wish I could, though!

[AHunter3]

While I am actively reading it, strongly prefer a book.

When it comes time to put it back on the shelf, I wish they were all ebooks though. Shelf space is not infinite.

[Moonlitherial]

For reading I’ve almost 100% converted to my tablet. I have a subscription to a couple of magazine services who have more magazines than I’ve ever read available. I have a huge library of ebooks of my own and access to thousands more through the library and it fits nicely in my purse and I never have to decide when to go to carrying a backup book because I’m almost finished the one I’m reading.

I use a ziploc bag for waterproofing so I can read in the tub and don’t have anymore stress over books with soggy pages and I can easily pack vacation reading without checking a second bag.

I have tried to convert to electronic cookbooks but I’m not quite there yet. I’ve got my last generation tablet that I’m setting up to stay in the kitchen but I keep going back to my shelf of cookbooks.

I also have a few favorites that I keep around in book form (although I have them as e-books too) that I sometimes reread just because they seem more right that way.

I would never go back to all paper - I’ve read hundreds of books that I’d never have found without the e-reader and found many niche authors that would never get a publishing contract but who write a damn entertaining story. I don’t miss the days of holding a paper book to read but I’m glad I had them.

[Boyo_Jim]

I have a Kindle. When they finally put a smart phone together with a tablet in one device, I’ll get it and dump the phone and the Kindle, assuming they don’t force me to keep my books in the fucking cloud, for a price.

[Enright3]

I love the convenience of my kindle. Furthermore, if I forget my kindle; I just pop open my kindle app on my phone, and boom, there it is. I also like to read in bed, usually when my wife is trying to go to sleep. The kindle works best for that because it gives off less light than my bedside lamp.

If you are classifying my Kindle as a tablet then, I prefer that. However I don’t really like reading on my tablet computer.
1)Kindle
2)paper book
3)tablet computer

[WordMan]

@blondebear

I read stuff online all day long–message boards, newspaper and magazine articles, blogs, etc. But I prefer my books to be “real”. One of the big reasons is that books provide a brief respite and escape from the sometimes overwhelming presence of digital media.

Yes, I feel this way, too. I am a lot more likely to stop reading a book if it is an eBook - so easy with a touch to head back online, check the SDMB, etc.

Having a physical book gets more focus for me. And I like how it is a different experience vs. vacuuming up text blocks of various types online.

Having said all that, I use my tablet all the time and LOVE the value when traveling.

[An_Gadai]

@Rigamarole

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.

Textbook makers, bookstore owners and college student surveys all say millennials still strongly prefer print for pleasure and learning, a bias that surprises reading experts given the same group’s proclivity to consume most other content digitally. A University of Washington pilot study of digital textbooks found that a quarter of students still bought print versions of e-textbooks that they were given for free.

From: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/why-digital-natives-prefer-reading-in-print-yes-you-read-that-right/2015/02/22/8596ca86-b871-11e4-9423-f3d0a1ec335c_story.html

[Athena]

@MoonMoon

I’m in my mid-forties, so definitely old enough to have spent most of my life with real books, but I strongly prefer e-reading.

1. I’m a fast reader, and I love “tap tap tapping” my way through a book. So much quicker.

2. I have completely lost my affinity for having “stuff”. My last move was across country and I purged ruthlessly. I kept very few paper books, and the only ones I’ve acquired since have been given to me. None of them will be kept after I read them. And interestingly enough, I’ve been putting off reading them, just because it’s so much more convenient to read on my iPhone, iPad or Kindle.

3. I’m not there yet, but given the way the women in my family get arthritis in their hands, I know it’ll be much easier to hold a kindle than a book. In fact, my mom loves her Kindle for just that reason.

@jsgoddess

Wow. I could have written this post. Including the age and the (for me, two) cross-country move.

I’m with you two. I’m not doing too well on #2 - I still need to purge my shelves of the many, many books I know I’ll never read again and have no real value - but it’ll happen sooner or later.

Also, my eyes have reached that stage of nearsightedness & presbyopia that it’s often impossible to find a way to hold a real book that is 1) comfortable and 2) I can easily see the #@@#!! page.

I do still read a lot of dead-tree books because I still actively borrow from the library, and my local doesn’t have everything available electronically. But if I had my preference, I’d get almost everything on my Kindle.

The exceptions to that are books that I anticipate flipping through from one page to another a lot. That boils down to cookbooks and technical books. I still buy both in hard-copy.

@Bill_Door

I have noticed a book on my shelf, wanted to re-read it, and downloaded a book I already owned.

Me too!

[Exapno_Mapcase]

I’m probably more of a book nut even than the book lovers in this thread. For me a book is a physical object. I love them and want to be surrounded by them. An ebook is not real. It’s not a book. If it doesn’t exist in print it’s not anything at all. Meaningless and valueless. (I know that the words stay the same. So?) If I had 1000 print books and 1000 books on my e-readers, I’d have 1000 books. That’s just the way I’ll always be.