Physical Books Will Always Trump eBooks. Here's Why.
It's just not the same.
This is the small sentence that repeatedly runs rampant through my brain after genuine attempts at reading eBooks. I've tried — I really have — to find usefulness and joy in a digital reading experience. But my opinion of eBooks was developed subsequent to effectively striking out after three failed attempts.
I've read exactly three eBooks in my life. I read each one cover to cover (if you can technically call it that) and gave them a legitimate chance. But, although the words of Darlow, Packer, and Hoffman are much different, the books all felt the same. Each one had the familiar white pages and back lit screen, seemingly no variance in size or weight, and ultimately lost its personality from one book to the next.
When I sit at my desk at home, I look around and find myself surrounded by books. Real, physical, actual books. To my right, sandwiched between larger and more colorful books, sits Christian Beliefs by Wayne Grudem. I think back to when I first read that book in my college days in California as a newfound believer. When I recently read it again, pleasant nostalgia reminded me how much my life has changed since I first read it almost a decade ago.
I glance towards the bottom of a shelf and see Do You Really Love Football?! by Jon Gruden. One of my assistant coaches in Austria gave this book to me as a gift and, after finishing it, I knew that I wanted football to forever be a huge part of my life.
I look and see a little red book pressed up against a book stopper on the right hand side of the top shelf and I instantly remember finishing The Pep Talk by Elko & Shook on a train ride in the Netherlands on my way to lead a youth football camp. I still use stories from that book to this very day.
You see, each physical book is not only filled with content, but marked with memories. When I look at each book individually, it's like I'm looking at an old friend. Needless to say, I don't look at a PDF file on my laptop the same way.
I like the tangibility of books; being able to touch and feel them matters to me. In fact, all of my senses are at work when I sit down and read a book. I like to feel the binding in my palms. I love the smell of a brand new book fresh from delivery. I like the sound of flipping through the pages with my thumbs. I love how each cover looks unique with a different design.
I guess I don't taste books, but four out of five senses is enough for me.
I know eBooks serve a purpose. Frequent travelers probably love being able to store books on a tablet to save a little bit of room in their carry-on. Scholars of academia surely enjoy the convenience of having encyclopedic knowledge at their fingertips. Many tech geeks will presumably conclude that everything is just better on an Apple product. I get that.
But if all my books disappeared onto a microchip, I would feel like I’ve lost the experience; lost the memory; lost a bit of myself. I might have less to lug around and maybe I’d be able to search my notes more easily, but the introduction sentence still rings in my ears: it’s just not the same.
Like an old friend, a book wants to be revisited. It wants to remind you of what you once learned. It’s ready to show you that its paper is still in tact, the ink still properly sits on the pages, your highlighted sentences and underlined phrases remain, and the residue from a tear shed continues to be visible. A digital reading experience can’t provide these sensations.
As Japanese author Yoshida Kenkō said all the way back in 1330(!), “It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom you have never met.” It's oddly powerful to think about reading a physical book as a way of communing with the author, and even more powerful to imagine that back in the 14th century people were doing the exact same thing.
Physical books will always be around. New technology will continue to bring forth new methods of reading, and perhaps one hundred years from now physical books might even feel obsolete. But, at least in my lifetime, physical books will always trump eBooks. Because when it comes to a digital reading experience, it’s just not the same.