Books Vs Ebooks

The ebook vs printed books debate has been a big dilemma for the last decade. But the issue at last does not come from logic or emotion but preference. By this I would like to bring out my argument that there is no ebook vs books debate it is when is the either of them more suitable.

I still remember the first book that touched my heart- Malory towers by Enid Blyton. I always loved stories- my mother a bibliophile herself would read it to me and my sister. But it was the school library that first gave me my taste of glee from touching and going through a book. Then Harry Potter came into my life I finished the whole series in a week or even less. But after its end I was devastated I needed to read more. I would read everything that I could find, even the ones that I could barely understand. This was the time I became aware of the miraculous thing called ebooks.

I was reading Percy Jackson and the lightening thief. I finished it and realised that I needed to start the second book right away. I am afraid if you are not as obsessed as I was you wouldn’t understand. I went on the internet to find the sequel at 2 am in the night. If this does not say how easy to access and thus inclusive ebooks are then I don’t know how to convince you.

Books for me are treasures that I carry in my memories. But ebooks are for times when you need to read something because you are at a party you do not want to be in. Books are treasures that you get from your grandfathers. Ebooks are reading the sequel at dead of night, lights off so that your mother does not find out.

Both are equally important, oranges and apples everyone.

But books carry meaning. It is the feeling that you get when you get your hands on the limited edition copy. Or when your mother gives you Siddharta because now you are old enough. It is when you give your most favourite books to your loved ones because they just have to read it.It is the smell of old libraries and the small notes and scribbles in the margin. Nothing in the world can replace this meaning.

But ebooks are for nights in the long train journey when everyone switches off the lights and you are up reading the book in your phone. It is when your mother tells you to go with her to meet people you have never seen and you go find a corner and read since there is nobody to talk with.

It is when you are an introvert in a room full of extroverts and you need to escape.

Books have always been an introvert’s haven and an extrovert’s meditation. The form of media, the print or the visual and sensual feelings do not define the reading of books. For it is the books that chooses us and not us that chooses the books. Therefore there is no debate or competition in the beautiful place that is world of books.