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Hello Fonzies! Are you a bookworm or a crazy book lover? What kind of book genres do you like to read? As a student, reading seems to be a part of our lives. I am sure that you always have your nose in between news articles, fiction, and blogs as well as lecture notes and learning materials every day to gain fresh ideas or deepen your knowledge which is a good habit. Since we are living in a world immersed in technology, all the content nowadays has been digitalized and displayed on-screen! Hence, e-book bubbles burst!
Some of you might get used to using printed textbooks and workbooks in primary school and high school. However, as you begin your journey at Sunway College, you will start discovering huge differences between printed books and e-books. Some avid readers say printed books are the only spirit of accessing literature. On the other hand, some tech-savvy people claim that e-books make reading more advanced and convenient. Between the two sides of this debate, let’s look into four categories for both sides to figure out the pros and cons of printed books and e-books! You can also find out the better option for yourself!
1. Convenience
Printed books
Unlike eBooks, printed books can work anytime without batteries, chargers and Wi-Fi. If you want to enjoy the serenity of reading when your phones and tablets run out of batteries, feel free to grab any printed magazines or storybook series in your hands. For study purposes, printed books are more convenient for students to highlight and jot down any remarks and comments on the margins of the manual. Sticky note lovers can also paste their colourful and appealing notes on the page edge.
E-books
When it comes to an e-book, it is portable and lightweight. Compared to printed books, eBooks are easy to be carried around wherever you go as you can access tens of thousands of eBooks online via Google Books, Amazon Kindle and Wattpad by only using your smartphones! For a better reading experience, readers can also download e-books in advance on their tablets and read them offline while taking LRT or during break times. Instead of carrying bulky books in your bag, why not check out your favourite books on e-readers!
2. Reading Experience
Printed books
Printed books are able to create immersive environments for readers to empathize with the strong personalities of the characters due to less distractions. There is no doubt that printed texts and words are closer to readers. They give the true feel of reading. Readers can hold and touch the quality of the book cover, feel the paper as well as flip and turn the pages. If you are a bookworm, you must love the feeling of holding a book in your hands while sitting on a soft cushion and enjoying a cup of Macha Latte.
E-Books
Instead of printed books, eBooks will not give readers a sense of paper but readers can make the reading more interesting by changing the font and adding images based on individual preference. Language translation is also available as you are reading foreign stories. Moreover, if you are idle in reading long texts and paragraphs, eBook offers a new feature to you which is listening to the audio version. E-readers such as Kindle and Google Play Books enable readers to choose their preferable voices and languages. To illustrate, it is not only an eBook, but also an audiobook. You get a free narrator to give you storytelling during your nap!
3. Effects on Health
Printed Books
Compared to eBooks, printed books are more friendly to our health. Printed books will not emit blue light so they are more suitable for avid readers for prolonged reading. In addition, do you know that reading printed books can also make us smarter? Reading real page-turned books can boost readers’ brain power and enhance our memories. It is a good way to trigger our brain function and keep our brain sharp and young at any age!
E-books
When we turn to eBooks, it will be harmful to our health if we stare at e-readers for prolonged hours. The longer time we spend reading eBooks on screen, the more blue light we are exposed to. Thereafter, it will cause eye strain and dry eyes, especially when reading in the dark. Hence, e-books might be unfriendly to someone who has myopia. For students and office workers, you will not have that much intention to read eBooks after long periods of working in front of the screen. Staring at the screen and sitting in front of the computer desk for long hours will also cause headaches and muscle strain.
4. Ways to store books
Printed Books
Storing printed books is not an easy-peasy job to do. Printed books are unwieldy when they come to stacks of books. Books will also take up a lot of space to be arranged tidily. If you are a big fan of purchasing popular collection series, a large bookshelf is a necessity for you to store your books. Furthermore, once you keep printed books for many years, the papers of the book will turn yellowish. It must be a distressing thing to book lovers when they see their Harry Potter Collection turns yellowish.
E-books
E-books will not give readers worries about book storage. All your reading materials can be saved in a single file to the cloud such as OneDrive, Google Drive or iCloud forever. If you want to recall one of the old stories, you just need to type the book title in the search bar. A myriad of eBooks can be accessed after years without worrying about the space and the book’s condition. As students, you can also save all your digitized manuals and lecture notes on your devices throughout Sunway Foundation Programme. In this case, you have no excuses that your manuals and worksheets are missing! Moreover, e-books are more environmentally friendly to mother earth as it helps to save trees! This also contributes to implementing Sustainable Development Goal 13 which is “Climate Action”.
That is all, Fonzies! After looking at two sides of the debate, which one do you prefer, printed books or e-books? Regardless of whether printed books or eBooks, both actually depend on the readers’ preferences and reading habits. Both have their pros and cons but the most important thing is what you learn and obtain from reading. Hope everyone can discover their enthusiasm for reading and enjoy reading Fonzies!
Written by,
Zi Wei
The Fonz
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