Real books

Picture this: You’re at your favorite coffee shop, you’re nice and cozy having just scored the coziest couch in the place, you treated yourself to your favorite coffee or tea and you’ve got hours to kill.

What’s the only piece missing in this scenario of perfection?

Your e-book? No. Said no one. Ever.

Absolutely nothing compares to a real book and if you deny that, you’re lying.

First, there is no better smell. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this is the smell that brings me, an English major and book collector, the greatest sense of happiness and peace of mind.

Everything about a book is a work of art. The cover, the typography, the binding — all of it work together to convey in some way and sell the writing inside.

As an antique book collector, I look at all the aspects. It’s so much fun to flip through books from sometimes hundreds of years ago.

It just wouldn’t be the same if I looked up the contents of a book online, never getting to touch the book, to look at the cover, title page and publishing date, to never feel the worn pages, to never read what others who owned the book before me had written in the margins.

Sure, you can often type in notes on the book on your device. But how do you quickly flip through in search of that one night?

Also, it is impossible to buy a used e-book.

In the world of e-books, the book costs what it costs and there is no “used” option to save you some cash. And besides, how do you have any idea of what other readers before you thought about that one obscure passage?

Sure, you may completely disagree with the reader and realize that whoever owned this book before you was probably an idiot, but that’s the charm of used books.

Until an e-book can offer me the exquisite experience a real book gives me, I rest my case.

–Sami West, Currents Editor

For E-Readers

Let’s stop romanticizing reading; let’s be realistic.

Admit it: Old books smell like mold and dust mites. And do I appreciate the smudges of coffee and leftover mac and cheese on the pages of my Harry Potter book? No.

Bounded books have been around for centuries, but because we live in the twenty first century, electronic-readers are by far the smarter option.

As a broke college millennial, e-books have won me over. I can now read anything I want — instantly.

The minimum amount of physical effort required to read has dwindled down to nearly zero. I can walk and read for miles, lay in bed and read with minimally less stress on my body, and I’m sure I could read perfectly whilst on the back of a young stallion.

The virtually weightless form of an e-reader paired with its brilliant ability to alter the text size and font of any book, allowing readers to read in their favorite format every time.

Not that I hate large margins and double-spaced 15 point font, I’d just rather read my young adult novels like I read my historical non-fiction. I am an adult after all.

With an e-reader in hand, millions of books are at my disposal, but I also have the definitions of every single word contained in those said books.

When reading Twilight and stumbling upon a word such as “irrevocably”, I can look up its meaning with a simple tap, thereby allowing myself more time to ponder the interesting dynamics that must exist in a relationship between a teenage human and vampire.

Did I also mention the word “free”? Thanks to technological advances, we can now rent e-books from our very own public libraries, not to mention the hundreds of free novels to choose from on the e-readers themselves.

To put it simply, asking if I prefer reading with an e-book or physical book is like asking if I watch Netflix or play DVDs for entertainment.

As a summation, e-readers are my preferred method of reading and are perfect for every student on the go.

–Amanda Thao, Staff Writer