These days, more and more people are reading “e-book” instead of paper books. They use kindles, ipads, smart phones for reading e-book. In Korea, e-book market makes up only 2% of book market. But the growth rate is more than 20% per year.
What is e-book?
E-book is a new type of book. We have used analog type of book so far. With innovative development of technology like smart phones, we have got able to use digital book which is e-book. Instead of leafing through the pages of a paper book, You just touch and scroll the screen.
You can see how to use e-book through this video.
This kind of site is selling e-books!
Now I am going to tell you the strengths of e-book and paper book.
First, Good Points of E-Book.
E-book is economic. The price of e-book is only 30% of paper books. Why is this so cheap? There is no middleman, no stock, no limit, no need of materials for e-book. So the price of e-book is very reasonable.
Because e-book does not need materials which are papers, it is eco-friendly. We need to cut down trees to make papers. The publisher cannot predict the demand of the books exactly. So some trees are cut needlessly. E-book does not have to worry about these ecological things.
E-book is also very convenient because it is portable and asks for less space. Imagine you carry 5 books in one bag. The bag will be filled with books, and it must be super heavy. But you can carry even 500 books in one device!
Next, Good Points of Paper Book.
Paper books are familiar to most people. Especially old people have hard time using e-book. People are used to read paper books. We do not need any skills. We just grab any book we want, and we can read it. So paper books are easier to read and absorb. It is easier to concentrate on paper books then e-books.
Also, there are things that only can be experienced by paper books-folding the pages, sharing with friends, displaying on the shelves, etc. These things are actually the attractions of the paper books.
And paper books do not rely on power. You can read paper books anywhere anytime you want. But if you want to read e-book, you need somewhere you can charge the battery.
If you want some more information,
watch this video. It will give the comparison.
We do not have to choose one for reading methods. My opinion is this: E-books will be used more widely especially in books with light contents. It would be better if we combine the two “appropriately“. E-book has its own advantage and paper book does, too. You can save money and time by using E-book. At the same time, you can concentrate on book by using paper book.
Let me give you an example. For reading entertaining novel, e-books would be appropriate. Because we do not need much concentrations for this kind of book. For reading books of major, paper books would be appropriate. We need a lot of concentrations and it is important.
So If you have not used e-book still, I recommend you to go and try to use e-book! Using both methods of reading will help your reading life be more effective.
