To Read Or Not To Read : A Battle Between Print and Machine

The big procrastinating machine that I am, I seem to have arrived a tad too late with my opinion on the ‘print vs. e-reader’ debate. Without much ado, I will proceed to lay my views on the same.

After having acquired a Kindle Paperwhite (try saying that with an air of boastfulness!) in June, I have had to question my own beliefs regarding the sanctity of printed books. The PW (as it shall be addressed hereafter) has surprisingly been a good substitute to books. Statistically, my average of books/month has again picked up considerably after the arrival of the PW. To top it off, I have even set a personal goal of completing 50 books in the year of 2014 (or I might have just accepted it out of curiosity and competitiveness on Goodreads). Anyway, I am not advertising for PW, so I’ll get straight to my opinion on the advantages (I wish Amazon pays me something for this advertisement). Well, here goes:

1. When I have to carry a laptop, other gadgets and loads of books in my backpack, the use of an e-reader sheds tons off my back earning me blessings from the upper torso. More than a 1000 books for 300 gms – the PW weighs 206 gms (approx.) This I feel is the best trade-off.
2. For the die-hard print fans, trust me with better technologies, the feel is closer to pages. The only downside being that there is no ‘fresh-smell of the pages’ that readers want. Considering how user friendly Amazon is (just a few hundred dollars), I bet they’ll introduce the ‘smell/fragrance’ in the next version of Amazon PW
3. Additional features like the backlight! I remember holding a torch in my mouth or balancing it on the bed to read books in the dead of the night. The technology of today eliminates all the troubles.
4. While I agree, that a bookstore is a beautiful sight for the eyes, travelling to and fro from one takes a lot of time and infinitely more effort. For the ideal procrastinator, an online store, like Amazon with direct delivery to the device is in simple words, heaven.
5. As far as pocket economics is concerned, while the e-reader eats into the weekly dinner expenditure, the books are cheaper and if you keep the e-reader in good condition (treasure it as if you would a puppy) I bet it will prove to be a comfort to the ol' money bin! For example, I compared the prices of the books I have on Kindle to the same editions (or cheaper ones!) in print and the price difference was staggering. For the 37 books on my PW the Kindle edition cost INR 5493.95 while the same in print would have been more than twice the paid amount at INR 11789.5! At this rate I will have recovered the cost of the Kindle by the turn of the year.
6. Personally, the best thing about the e-reader is that there is no print material involved (d’uh!). I have spent hours in agony, crying over books that have been returned to me with twisted ends, folded pages, torn pages and other malaises. To me, it has always marked the end of the book (not that I disown it!). The e-reader bypasses all such torturous inflictions and keeps my heart and mind at peace.

The writer has opined. You are free to follow your own thoughts (and wallets) in decisions in this war. To me the PW has proved to be a good option to change my loyalties (I am a heartless b*****d). Will you follow next?

Post Script : In light of the above discussion, I should thank N. on whose advice I got a Kindle PW. I had initially been planning to get a 'Dremel which costs about 8K INR. But I guess the PW has been a good bargain and that the Dremel can wait!