It seems to be an endless discussion.
What does "reading a book" mean? Is listening to an audiobook even reading? Can an ebook give you the same feeling as reading a "real" book? Why do people who like print books mention the smell so often? And so on ...
First of all, this post is just about my own experience. You do your thing, I do mine, we can talk about it without judging one another, right?
The inspiration for the post was "The Case of the Silken Petticoat" by Christopher Bush.
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| Trying out a pen? Or was it a kid (I have been guilty of drawing into two books as a small kid, and I wasn't a prodigy which could excuse that, I can tell you.) |
You may or may not know that I'm a librarian at the circulation department of a university library. I have seen books with as many marginalia as original text, books full of color (thanks to highlighting and underlining), loads of dog ears, coffee and other stains, ripped pages, but the worst was probably the acid victim (we have a chemistry faculty).
While I will never understand why people do that with books that don't belong to them, I get if people want to work with their books, add notes or highlight passages important to them - I made notes in my own copies of books we worked on in school - and I don't get grossed out by stains or foxing easily anymore unless they are really yucky or smelly.
I love print books. I love feeling the different kinds of paper. I love old books and if I had had a better experience at it during my first year of library training - which was neither my teacher's nor my own fault - I might have liked to try my hand at bookbinding.
I love marbled paper, gilt edgings and embossed book covers, sometimes with beautiful patterns. I love the uniqueness of a book and I can get excited over old journals even if they were about physics or chemistry.
And yes, I'm one of those who loves the slightly musty smell of old books, but I'm not a fan of active mold, that would be weird.
I still miss our old second-hand bookstore. The store still exists, but in a bigger space. The old one would probably be considered a fire hazard today with its narrow aisles, but for me it was like a beautiful book maze.
Over the years people have often tried to convince me to listen to audiobooks or to read digitally. One of them was the ex who loved his audiobooks, but I got distracted way too easily (or even fell asleep, but I don't count that as a con because I have hit myself with printed books or my tablet more than once falling asleep) and he finally gave up.
A friend kept telling me that she could take hundreds of books on her vacation bringing her book reader, but I never understood why that is an advantage when I could just take one or two books along and have the perfect excuse to go to a bookstore during my vacation.
So why do I read a lot more books in electronic form now? There are several reasons.
I have sold books (not really worth the hassle for me), donated books to reading projects, and now I take books to our public book cabinet, but there are still so many in my library.
It may be an age thing that I don't really want to add that many to them anymore on a whim, but only those that I'm pretty sure I'll want to keep for some reason or other.
My solution was of course to get myself a library card which I didn't have for years because I preferred to own my books. As mentioned before, I don't get much out of the house anymore, though, and although it's embarrassing to admit, I haven't always been good at returning books on time, anyway.
So instead of borrowing print books, I'm mostly hanging out on OverDrive.
And then there's The Internet Archive where I have read quite a few books last year, among them the book by Bush.
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| My former boss would have freaked out about this. I can still hear him "NEVER use ordinary tape on a ripped page!!" As if we would have dared. |
I had noticed before that it felt differently to me if I read a book on The Internet Archive or on OverDrive, but I didn't try to analyze why.
This book has been the one looking the worst so far, and strangely enough that was what made me realize that if I have to read books digitally, I prefer reading digitized books over real ebooks.
It probably has to do with my being so old-fashioned in some regards. I said above that I love the uniqueness of books. Maybe you remember the post about the rose between the pages of a book? Sometimes I find myself wondering about the story of the specific copy. Why the rose? Why the scribbles in the Bush book?
Real ebooks don't give me such a feeling even if I change the font or the spacing or whatever. Accessibility, quick and easy word definitions, visual adjustments, I understand the advantages. Maybe one day, I can't do without them anymore and will be happy to have them, but that day hasn't come yet.
A friend of mine said: "I do all my reading digitally. It really started when I found it easier to focus on the words than in a book." For me, it's the other way round. Digitized books give me at least a bit of that print book feeling which makes it easier for me to concentrate. And again - both is fine and it's great if we both get what we need to enjoy our reading!
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| Sometimes I miss not having to stamp books at work anymore 🙃 |
By the way, it even makes a difference for me which device I read on. I only got myself a tablet some months ago and I don't use it that often (yet?).
Having my laptop when I'm lying on my bed - where I do most of my reading these days, I don't have a couch - is often easier for me than having to hold the tablet because of my wonky thumb. Of course, I'm careful that it's not too hot.
The tablet obviously makes more sense if I already have a non-see through cat sitting or lying on my chest for some time (Gundel does it almost every day now and she doesn't care how comfortable or not it is for me which is okay because I'm here to serve my cats, their looks tell me 😂).
These days, I usually read three books at a time, by the way, a print book (still the best for me), an ebook, and a book I read to the cats which can be in print or electronic form.
That way I can pick what works best for me at that moment.
So - what's your personal reading experience and why?
I have never used any audio book.
ReplyDeleteWho knows, maybe you'd like it? I know a lot of people who love their audiobooks, good for them!
DeleteI can't do audio books as they send me directly to sleep, even in the middle of the day! But Matthew loves them and reads tens each year when he's out walking. I do read on Kindle because I can get books I wouldn't want to keep for 99p or free on NetGalley, or older books that I would never find in a million years on Project Gutenberg etc. I do like to take the Kindle on holiday to free up suitcase space; it's great if you DO find a bookshop, but what if all the books are in Spanish and you want something easier to pick up, or there is nothing but thrillers and Hello Magazine (another Spanish holiday) or nothing but romances and it's miles away and the only books on the houseboat are Dune Vol 1-4? I do like a print book for the journey, though. My Kindle holds all of Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy, "just in case" - and about 300 other books I'd have to have read before I needed emergency classics! I do love print books, too - every book my best friend and I read together is a print copy, for example. I'm better at getting rid of ones I've just read than ones I've had for years, though.
ReplyDeleteWe were usually in English speaking countries and did city tours, so it was never a problem for us to find bookstores. Also we sometimes sat in Botanical Gardens reading for a while and before going to bed, but the rest was museums and buildings.
DeleteI don't like to keep long reading lists myself. I know they work for others, but for me they are pressure. I love jumping around or waiting for what jumps my way - or gets thrown my way, for example by you 😁
Oh, you had me in those first lines. I love the smell of libraries and library books. Those smells immediately take me back to my childhood and the glorious library we had. They replaced it with a much bigger state-of-the art one that just never got me excited again. My new town has a new building, too (there's also a Carnegie library which, surprisingly, hasn't been torn down). Those wonderful old smells just don't seem to exist, or if they do, they're very light. As for how I read...unfortunately, it's mostly on my iPad through the Libby app. I would much rather have a book in my hands. But, I, like you, have paid way too many fines. I'm sure I financed part of the new library in my old hometown. I do find my attention span is so limited, and I wonder if that's why. I haven't ever listened to an audio book. Except for my mom and my elementary school teachers, I've never liked to be read to. I prefer doing the reading aloud...it's the drama queen in me! This was an interesting topic, Cat, and I much appreciated your stance and reasons.
ReplyDeletehttps://marshainthemiddle.com/
Thank you for sharing your experience, Marsha!
DeleteI found it very interesting that when we did a survey at one time, patrons said they really wanted to have print books along the ebooks (as of course administrations often think ebooks are the one solution for everything). It's great to have different options to accomodate everyone.
It will always be books for me; I don't care if they are paperbacks or hard covers, there is just something about holding a book in my hands that is part of the experience. Audio books do not hold my attention. I used to try to listen to them while driving and would arrive at my destination with no memory of what had been read. Then I would rewind the tapes and try again only to have the same thing happen.
ReplyDeleteWhen traveling, I always have a paperback or two in my bag. They are light, don't take up much room and when I'm done I leave them behind for someone else to read. While I do enjoy spending time in book stores, most of the books I buy are from flea markets, thrift stores and garage sales. The books are inexpensive and usually in like new condition.
I am guilty of putting dog ears on the corners of my books, but I never write in them unless it is a cook book that I am adding my own notations to make a recipe more to my preferences. And, I would never dog ear or write in a book that did not belong to me! :)
I haven't been to bookstores as much anymore because I usually buy used books, but since fleamarkets are out (too far away) and we don't have garage sales and also not too many thrift stores, I buy them online, but nowadays only those I want to keep.
DeleteThank you for sharing, Dawn!
I love reading paper books, but have to confess I mostly read on my ereader now because it's so easy. But I still think paper books are the best. I never ever want to listen to an audio book. With five children I have listened enough to last me a lifetime, and I don't want to listen to a book. I'm all listened out.
ReplyDeleteNothing to confess here! Like I said, you do your thing, and even digital reading is easier for you now, that's the way it is.
Delete"I'm all listened out." 😂 I like that. I think for me "I'm all peopled out." would be more like it. During Covid, I really noticed how much I have grown to value silence (after working in public service and hours of commuting with public transport).
My first love remains my true love, which is paper books. However, acknowledging that, I do most of my reading on my Kindle. ha. Mainly because it is so convenient. I can read at night without having to turn on the light; I have all my books in one spot on the device so can easily switch between books; I can do much better searches when I forget who a character is, etc. But ah, the smell and feel of a "real" book is still my favorite. I admit I often borrow the same book at the same time in all three versions of paper, digital, and audio, and switch back and forth between them, depending on if I'm doing housework (audio), reading in bed (kindle), or reading during the day (paper).
ReplyDeleteHow interesting that you switch, Lisa, that's not something I have heard before, but it totally makes sense.
DeleteWhat I think is kind of funny is how people in the comments use "admit", "unfortunately", "confess" because I have read or heard that a lot. Isn't it strange that we automatically seem to think we have to defend our choices somehow?
I love this post so much! Yes to loving all kinds of books and the feel of them and how the books are made.
ReplyDeleteI resonated so much with the entire paragraph about the libraries. I prefer to have my own books, never return them on time and have had some experiences with snotty librarians.
Erin just sent a book link to me on Internet Archive and I agree that I like seeing the pages more than just seeing the ebook.
I do read a lot of ebooks but that is mainly so I can read at night without waking anyone but can still be under the covers (book lights have never worked well for me. They are either always falling off or hitting me in the face or dying on me at the most inopportune moment.).
I only like reading on my Kindle Paperwhite, though, because otherwise I feel like I am reading on a digital device like a notebook and I don’t like that. But my latest problem is that Amazon keeps adding all these features to the paperwhite and changing where the buttons are so all these windows drop down when all I want to do is read!! That’s why I am starting to buy more paperbacks again.
I thought it was so weird that only a few spots made me realize the difference my brain makes between the digitized books and the ebooks!
DeleteI stopped using Amazon, one reason being that they just do what they want. I heard a lot of people aren't happy with their Kindle experiences in several ways, so that's something I didn't ever even want to start. I hear you about just wanting to read. When using the tablet, I've had windows zooming or losing the zoom when I was sure I hadn't even touched anything and it drives me nuts. Print books don't do that! 😉
Cat,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for stopping by!! I love to read but I can't seem to find the time to do so so one of my goals for this year is to make time to read even if I have to schedule it!! Happy New Year to you and your family!!
Hugs,
Deb
Debbie-Dabble blog
Happy New Year, Deb! I hope you're going to manage and find some time to read, maybe in small portions?
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