This Is What Happens When a Paperback Reader Switches to eBooks for a Week
All my life I’ve been a strictly paperback book kind of gal. While I will fully admit to spending waaay too many hours binging Netflix series and scrolling through my endless Twitter feed, I have always found technological refuge in an oversized lounge chair with a steaming hot cup of tea and a well-thumbed paperback.
But now that I’ve signed the mortgage for my first apartment and have begun packing my belongings, I’m realizing that I have a pretty serious (and heavyweight) addiction when it comes to paperbacks.
In an effort to de-clutter and lighten my life (and my bookshelf), I decided to try swallowing my paperback-only pride and read only digital books for a week. After downloading the Kindle app on my iPhone, I was impressed by the expansive digital library, and after much perusing and a few sample reads, I settled on The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis. I’d been wanting to read this book since its release, and I just couldn’t pass up a $1.99 promotion price (seriously, that’s equivalent to a thrift store find!).
Although I was fully expecting to be annoyed at how iPhone reading felt, I was pleasantly surprised by the overall experience. Kindle’s software has virtual versions of some of the qualities that book lovers enjoy — like displaying the percentage of book completion and a virtual page-flipping feature.
Naturally, there were some downsides, and in a world of increasing digital *everything,* reading on my iPhone felt like an unnecessary extension of my screen time. E-reading often left my eyes feeling sore and my battery depleted, and I missed the sensory satisfaction that comes from holding a physical paperback book. I longed for the nostalgic feeling of spending countless hours curled up and thumbing through my favorite novels. Plus, it didn’t help that I found myself getting distracted by other apps on my phone on more than one occasion.
Despite some drawbacks, I would still call myself an eBook convert. I love that you can find new reads for a steal if you do a little digging (BookRiot is a great place for this!), and the reading experience is better than I thought it would be. Sure, snuggling up with a great-smelling paperback in my hand will always be my number one choice, but e-reading will definitely suffice until I forget how heavy books are to carry up four flights of stairs.
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