I have an iPad. Combine that with an overall lack of space and that means that I’ve grown accustomed to reading digitally. For the past several years I can say a majority of what I have read has been digital.
And there are many advantages to reading digitally. You can easily change the font to something you prefer or adjust the size for optimal reading. Much easier to just start wherever you left off and not have to remember your place. Can easily make the screen brighter or darker. Of course, there are always instances where one of these features fails, but hey, nothing is perfect.
Oh! And I only hinted at the portability. On my iPad I can easily store every ebook I own. No problem. If there are three books I’m juggling, I don’t have to worry about the extra space of toting them all around. 3 or 300, my iPad doesn’t care.
Yeah. There are a lot of advantages to reading digitally.
But I’ve also started shifting back to paper. And there is just something about paper. The smell, the physicality. Even the pain-in-the-butt struggle if you are a person like me who tries to avoid breaking the spine at all costs.
I know there have been studies about memory retention, and lightwaves and other things that suggest that paper might actually be a better option. But I, and whatever studies have been done could also very easily be wrong. And it is also possible that this is just a phase and that in a few months I’ll be back to reading everything digitally.
But, for know, I’m enjoying having a physical book in my bag ready for the train ride and then keeping it bedside to do some reading right before falling asleep.
The real downside is that this does make me think that I need to do my best to make sure at least a paperback is available for every book I publish. Oh well. That does make being an author feel more real, at least to me.
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Deadly Troubadour 