Imagine trying to buy a gift for your best friend who is an avid reader and book lover. You decide to take the obvious route and get a book for your friend, but now you’re faced with the decision of buying an e-book or a print book.

As we go further into the digital age, e-books are becoming more and more prevalent. Services such as Kindle Unlimited, which allows you to read hundreds of thousands of books on one device, make it easy to read whenever, wherever. 

While you can still read print books whenever you want, wherever you want, it is much more convenient to carry a slim little device rather than a thick book. However, I would much rather carry around multiple thick, heavy books than an e-book. 

Both types of books have their pros and cons and everyone has their own preference. For me, some pros of printed books are that they are more convenient to read, they help me sleep better, and it is way easier to pass the books on to my friends. 

Print books are convenient because you are able to read them in any light, without glares or reflections, and you don’t have to worry about a printed book dying on you in the middle of a really good chapter. As someone who likes to physically highlight important or meaningful quotes while reading, it is much harder to do that in a satisfying way with a digital book. I prefer to color-coordinate different types of quotes based on their importance or how they made me feel, and have a key in the front of the book. 

Another thing that is hard to do with a digital book is to pass it on to friends. I travel a lot for work, so when I’m in the airport or on a plane, reading is one of my favorite things to do. A few of my coworkers also love to read, so when we’re traveling we all like to trade our books around, like a mini book club. Sometimes I will even bring books home to my mom to read. If all those books were digital, I wouldn’t be able to do that. 

The main con of printed books is that when traveling, it is hard to pack multiple ones because of their size and weight. Typically, I am only allowed to bring a carry-on and a personal item when I’m traveling for work, and I am often gone for weeks or a month at a time. When I am away for that long, I always want to pack three or four books so I know I have plenty to read. But if I want to have room for my essentials, then I can only bring two. 

While having a device like a Kindle could be really helpful for me when traveling, because it is slim and easy to pack, I can’t pass up a physical book. It may sound weird, but being able to hold the book in my hands helps me feel connected to the story that I’m reading. 

Having a physical book helps because sometimes I have issues with focusing, so I will read pages but not really comprehend what I read. Reading a physical book makes it easier to go back and reread certain pages or paragraphs to see what I may have missed. It also makes it easy to see how much I’ve read and how much I have left, giving me instant gratification. There is nothing more satisfying than turning the very last page of a long book. 

I think e-books eventually will be far more popular than printed books because of the rapid growth of technology, but there will always be people like me that just can’t give up the classic printed books.