Reading is an awesome way to rest, have some fun, enrich your life with a bit of culture, and travel across countless of imaginary worlds and adventures. What’s the best way to read today, however? Traditional paper books are many people’s go-to – and who doesn’t love the smell of a new book – but they are also a bit too large, heavy, and not durable enough. Audiobooks are fun but they are not for everyone. Reading on a tablet or a phone is another option but the light of these devices is usually too harsh for our eyesight. Instead, the best solution for most people is to get an e-reader.
Reading on an e-reader is very similar to reading on a tablet with one major difference – e-readers don’t emit light. Instead, their screens look like the page of a paper book and need an outside source of light to be read. This is fantastic as it doesn’t strain our eyesight as much as a tablet. Additionally, ebook readers have a ton of other benefits that make them one of the best ways to enjoy literature today.
The 9 benefits of E-readers
An e-reader is a simple device but that’s the beauty of it. Made exclusively for enjoying ebooks, a good ebook reader is chock-full of features that make reading easier, more comfortable, and more satisfying. If you’re wondering what’s so great about them and if you think you’d miss the feel of a nice paperback in your hands when you’re reading an ebook, here are the 9 main advantages of reading through an e-reader.
E-readers are exceptionally portable and lightweight
A typical e-reader rarely weighs more than 100-200 grams which basically the same as a smartphone. This is fantastic if you want to read a particularly large and unwieldy novel or if you want to take several books with you on a quick vacation out of town.
Every e-reader is basically an entire library
An e-reader can take not just a couple of but hundreds if not thousands of books on its hard drive. And with every brand offering access to a large online bookstore of titles, you can essentially carry a whole library in your pocket at all times.
Good e-readers have dictionaries too
If you want to read in a foreign language, you often have to have a dictionary on hand. This can be annoying as the dictionary is a whole other book to carry around. Alternatively, you can use your phone as a dictionary but e-readers offer an even easier solution – they have dictionaries in them! All you need to do is click on a word or phrase you’re unfamiliar with and the e-reader will tell you everything about it.
It’s very easy to take notes with an e-reader
Depending on what you’re reading, it’s often a good idea to take notes while doing so. With a paperback, however, it’s often not a great idea to do so as you’d have to write in the book itself. Sure, you can always carry a notepad with you but that’s a whole new paper book to have in your bag at all times. Instead, an ebook reader allows you to write notes in the ebook itself!
E-readers are a much more “hands-free” way to read
Have you ever tried reading a paperback while eating or doing something else? It’s a bit annoying as you constantly have to use one hand to keep the book open. Instead, an e-reader can be used just like a phone – you just put it beside you and it stays “open” while you do something else with your hands.
Reading is much more affordable through an e-reader
Ebooks are generally much more affordable than paperbacks. That’s perfectly logical as one is a digital file and the other is made out of real-world materials. So, even accounting for the initial price of the e-reader, you can save a lot of money with ebooks. Depending on what e-reader you get, the price of the device is usually offset after a couple of dozen of books or less.
This is the most discreet way to read books in public
We all love to read some weird stuff from time to time. And that’s ok – this is a judgment-free space. People in the office or on public transport can be quite judgy, however, so it’s often uncomfortable to read what you want to read around people.
This isn’t a problem with e-readers, however, as no one can see what you’re reading unless they literally try to read off your e-reader with you.
Good e-readers are very good for our eyes
Reading through an e-reader feels very similar to reading through a tablet or phone in lots of ways. These devices can even work with the same ebook files such as .mobi, .epub, .pdf, and so on.
The one huge difference, however, is that e-readers don’t emit light and are much easier on the eyes. They feel very much like a normal paperback in that sense and that makes them infinitely better than reading on a tablet or a phone. E-readers are literally “the best of both worlds”!
Limit unnecessary commuting with an e-reader
One drawback of paperbacks we often ignore is all the commuting we have to do to get them. Whether you want to get a book from a bookstore or a library, that’s usually a couple of hours of work and mingling with people until you’re back home, ready to read.
And, hey – going to the bookstore is fun, it’s a part of the experience! But it also takes a lot of time, time you can save with an e-reader. Not to mention that a lot of rarer and harder-to-find titles are not available at all in libraries and bookstores and can only be found online.
In conclusion
As you can see, e-readers aren’t meant as a replacement for paperbacks but as a unique alternative with its own uses and neat benefits. Of course, nothing would ever replace the feel of a good paperback but, like audiobooks, ebook readers offer a great alternative for when you need something more lightweight and portable or when you want to take notes or read with a dictionary in hand.