Books - Buying Paperback vs Digital Format

Salam,

I have books in the paperback format, and recently have gotten onto the digital format.. I would like to get a discussion started about your preferences, your point of view regarding them and your future buying decision.

Each format comes with its own merits and demerits. Like for example:

- The digital format allows you to have your whole library of books on a specific device that you can take anywhere with you. Whereas with the paperback format, you cannot really take all of your collections of books with you.

- With the digital format, only you have access to the book.. no one else can have access to the books because they're all under your account. Whereas the paperback edition, you can give the books to someone else as well as sell them if you like.

- The cost difference, the digital format having reduced prices than the paperback format in general. But for some of the digital books the price range is not much different from the paperback format, so for example a paperback version of a book sells for $20 whereas the digital format sells for $15, that's not really a huge difference in the price.

- And then there is the preference part, some like the look, feel and touch part of the paper.. for others it does not matter, or they prefer reading on a screen, etc.

So lets hear from others as well about this topic, your point of view and future buying decisions about which format you would be going with?

Greetings,

I'm sitting in a room where I am surrounded by bookcases containing hundreds of books, paperback and hardback. I have never bought or read a digital book. A few members of my family have kindles and they've shown me what some of my favourite books look like in that format, but I could never get used to it. The words are somehow cheapened and made to seem insubstantial.

The feel of a book in your hand is not something that is easy to replace. I also like the ease of being able to turn to any page I want quickly, or to switch from one section to another; every digital method I have seen for doing that is way too cumbersome.

I feel the same way about recorded music - give me vinyl records over mp3s any day of the week. They take up more space, but offer a much richer experience.

Peace

:bism:



Digital.

In rare exceptions, when digital is not available, I'll settle for a book - but honestly, it is so much work now trying to read a book. I'm chagrined to admit this, but I've been spoiled as a result of the evolution of reading in our digital age.

Also, did I mention I now have trouble reading long articles and books? Sad, I know. My attention span has shortened, and I believe people of our generation and younger have shorter attention spans than goldfish, and I kid you not (Source: Science News).

(Sighs.)

I studied about the Luddites in history class when I was in high school; I finally now crudely understand and appreciate their sentiments.

:wa:

Enjoyed reading both perspectives. We agree, there are certain advantages in the paperback format that the digital format cannot compete with from reading above.

Putting all of your concentration in to a paperback book is much easier than the digital format; and the digital device itself can give you way too many distractions so before you've finished reading the first chapter you're doing other things on the device.

When I read a paperback book I can recall where I would have read a specific topic or paragraph, i.e. on the right hand side of the page and at the beginning of the page, whereas making that same kind of recollection with the digital format tend to be much more reduced.

When atrempting to focus, the printed form is usually the most ideal since i find the mental reception much higher,
portability and the ability to keep backup copies is with the digital format, they don't weigh anything either, i sometimes travel between the village home and the one in the city for extended stays and find my books weighing down heavily, and because i can't always take them with me on the bike, end up without most books and have to get them sent to me so now i have some in the village and some in the city.

With all that said, when it comes to research mode, both printed and digital formats obviously have their advantages beause you can do 0.05 second word searches on the digital, copy paste, colour hilight without staining a book, and also email it in a milisecond. but with the printed books it's much easier to leave bookmark tabs and flip between multiple pages while not being lost in a myriad of buttons.

A huge hd touch projector like in minority report would allow a person to throw papers all over the place like on a real desktop though.

Anyways, when trying to concentrate on the Quran, i think most people woukd agree that the printed version in their favourite layout and format is the very best? No.

Abz2000 said:

Anyways, when trying to concentrate on the Quran, i think most people woukd agree that the printed version in their favourite layout and format is the very best? No.

Click to expand...

Yes, agree, and that is most especially so if one is memorizing the Quran.

One thing that came to my mind when you mentioned 'research mode' above was: yesterday I was downloading a Quran application on an android tablet, and I downloaded multiple translation versions in different languages and I had the ability to do an instant search upon any of the translation versions / languages. So in this case the digital format is more efficient in searching things for research purposes, but once you've collected the references, then you can go into printed mode for complete concentration on what you've collected.

Assalamu Alaikum

I think for learning purposes, a book is much more interactive, especially if you're the type to highlight and annotate. It also increases the chances of you memorizing/learning the information. I see digital books as more of a convenience for searching pages, traveling, or just reading for entertainment. You are also able to have a lot of books in a collection without having to physically carry them. I prefer a regular book overall because it puts you in a different mindset and there's no digital distractions (like checking messages, notifications, etc. while reading).