The Advantages

• One of the biggest advantages of eBook is the fact that they require no trees to create them. This is obviously an eco-friendly option that both reduces cost and lowers environmental impact.

• Information can be obtained without leaving your desk! Need to do some last minute research on a particular topic? Simply find a great eBook store, search for your keywords or phrases, purchase the book and you’re set!

• Unlike paper books and materials, digital books only require one device to carry around with you. This means you can carry a library of various book genres for every mood.

• eBooks can lower the cost of enjoying your favorite titles. With no shipping and handling costs, eBook typically have prices that are 50-60% lower than their print counterparts.

• eBooks are more flexible than paper books. For those who have trouble reading the typical book-sized font, eBook readers can enlarge the font size to make reading more pleasurable and easier on the eyes.

• eBooks can contain multi-media elements not available with traditional books.

• Audio and video can be embedded to make reading a fully immersive experience.

• Ever wonder where that great passage in your favorite book went to? With eBooks you can mark passages, save and search text before, during or after you read.

With all these advantages it is difficult to image what the disadvantages are, but there are some that have many folks concerned.

The disadvantages

• Piracy is the number one concern for both publishers and authors. While traditional books can be copied with machines, the time and cost of doing so typically keeps this type of piracy at bay. With eBooks, however, “sharing” books that have not been purchased with others is as easy as posting a file online or, in some cases, copying and pasting the text from one document to another.

• Many people still prefer being able to hold a traditional book in their hands. For those of us who enjoy reading a book in bed before signing off for the night, a cold hard digital device just won’t be the same.

• While one advantages of eBook device is their ability to enlarge fonts for easier reading, the fact is one is still reading off an LCD screen. Unlike paper, these screens provide a glare that not only make reading inconvenient if the lighting isn’t just right, the glare may actually cause eye strain and make it more difficult to focus while reading.

• With the wide variety of formats and eReader devices on the market, choosing which device is right one for all situations can be nearly impossible. Though compatible formats have been introduced that should allow most readers to view purchases, many of these still lack proper formatting. Without proper page layouts and spacing reading becomes more of a tedious chore than an enjoyable pastime. With traditional books one simply buys and reads!

• When is the last time you had to plug your paper book into the wall outlet? How disappointing would it be to find yourself right in the middle of a steamy romance scene while traveling only to have the batteries in your reading device die, with no way to charge them?

• Currently eBooks have an unreliable life span. Paper books last for decades provided they are well cared for. And besides, what good is a bookshelf if you cannot enjoy the look and smell of all your time-worn books, lovingly thumbed, crimped and read cover to cover, over and over again?

While some may find the transition from paper books to eBooks impossibility, many have already embraced the technology as the status quo. Young people especially are finding eBook options as appealing and convenient. For those who find the advantages of eBook more appealing than the “old way” of reading there are several eBook stores reviewed on this site, such as Amazon Kindle Store and more, that can help users find the best bargains and options.

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E-Books: Pros and cons

Pros

Cons

It’s simple to carry dozens of books at once. In some cases, books may cost less per title. It is easy to search an entire book by word or phrase, and still have the option of using a Table of contents or index. Write notes or do highlighting without damaging the book. Change the size of the text and, in some cases, choose a preferred font. The universe of public domain books is rapidly becoming within reach of anyone with access to a device with an Internet connection; lots of ‘free’ oprions. Academically-oriented eBook sites will often show proper citation format for multiple styles and work with such software as EndNote and Refworks. Find yourself with time on your hands? (at a doctor’s office, on line, etc.) Pull put a small device and access your personal library. If you read a lot but don’t necessarily want to keep all your books or have room for many books, the reader is a compact storage device or you can delete books.

It can be difficult to print as much as you’d like to – and sometimes you’re not allowed to print any pages at all, depending on your ebook format or simply restrictions from the publisher, which could be a problem for non-fiction, reference, and textbooks. If your battery dies, your book dies. eInk technology allows you to read much longer – but not forever. Non-eInk eBook readers especially, can be hard on the eyes. Plenty of books are simply not available in digital format. For libraries buing eBooks, some titles are held hostage in expensive collections: a library sometimes can’t buy one title for $100 – they must buy the ‘collection’ for $5,000. Can’t afford the collection? You don’t get the book. How perishable are books made of bits? Answer: In some cases, Ouite. Read your terms before buying an eBook if you want to won if forever. Even then changes in future access formats could create future headaches. A book you want to buy may not be available in a file format that your e-reader can access. E-Books are hard to cite in academic papers as most do not have standard page numbers.

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