Books In Different Forms

I enjoy books. I like learning things from books. I gain enjoyment from reading books (well most of the time). I like re-reading books.

I have read books most of my life. There have been times of heavy reading like when I was in junior high, and I read a lot (mostly Star Trek, Star Wars, and other lite Sci-Fi). Then I read less in high school and college, but I still read some. College was when I first the Bible through completely. As an adult I have tried to keep up reading regularly. I make sure the read every night before bed for at least a little bit, and I have started reading the Bible when I wake up in the morning for a bit. I also read when I do yard work or exercise (I’ll clear that up shortly).

My morning and night reading is done on a tablet most of the time. Sometimes I switch to a physical book for my night reading depending on what I want to read. As for my exercise and yard work reading, I use audiobooks.

So, I enjoy books in all 3 forms, and I see value in all 3 forms.

The tablet is great for not needed a separate light source and I can read without waking up my wife when I wake up early and want to read the Bible before I start my day or in the evening and she is already asleep, and I want to read before bed. Or when my wife wakes up in the middle of the night and want to read to help herself get back to sleep and she doesn’t want to wake me up. I can also carry more books at a time on the tablet. So, on vacation this is the best way to travel with books in my opinion. I can bring as many books as I want without taking up much space. And recently I have started checking books out digitally from my library on my tablet. This allows me to find books I may not have found otherwise, and I get to read them. The downside of this is that I am a slow reader and so I don’t usually get through a book before I must return it. All I can hope is that I can renew it and continue reading it. I don’t like not having the ability to flip to something I remembered on an earlier page, but not exactly sure where it was. I also don’t like having to make sure the tablet is charged as well. Sometimes I forget to charge it and then I must wait to read. That doesn’t happen with paper book.

Then there are physical books. I like the feel of a physical book in my hands. I love being able to turn pages. And the smell of a book is very special as well. Over the last 7 years or so I have started getting autographs by authors that I like, and having a physical book is key to this. I like that I have something they wrote having their signature on it. It is a remembrance of good times and meeting good people. With a physical book I can flip easily to somewhere else in the book that I might need to access; like a map, an equation, something that I recall from an earlier page that I want to confirm. These are great things about paper books. Finally, seeing those books on a shelf is a somewhat nice thing as well. Knowing that I have read them and can read them at any time is kind of cool.

Finally, there are audiobooks. I first listened to an audiobook over 13 years ago. My wife and I were going to go on a road trip, and the GPS unit we bought came with 3 free credits for audiobooks, and so we gave it a try and it hooked me. I now have over 470 titles in my audible account. I like listening to all ranges of books and now even some podcasts. I listen in all different areas of my life, like driving, ride my bike or making breakfast. I enjoy certain narrators and will now possibly try book because of those narrators. That is something I never thought I would do. The narrator helps create the story for me almost as much as the author does sometimes. Being able to listen to books also allows me to complete books more quickly than I would if I read them myself. Again, I am slower reader and so being able to complete books in less time is a nice thing for me.

Now I know some people don’t like one or more of these forms of books. Some people look at physical books as outdated, ok I get that. Some people can’t stay focused well enough to listen to a book in audio form, I get that as well. There are certainly times when I have to go back a bit because I zoned out on a section while listening. And others can’t stand the lack of feel you get from a tablet, and I certainly understand that. But just like with so many other things in life we all have our own preferences. I would personally say that I like audiobooks, then physical books, and finally tablet/digital books.

What are you thoughts on different forms of books types. So you have a preference?