I’m promiscuous when it comes to reading. I’ll read any format I can get my hands on. Do I prefer the soft, supple pages of a physical book? Sure. I’ll even go Large Print if that’s the only copy available. I like big text, I won’t lie to you. The tender glow and smooth edges of a kindle do it for me too. I’ll even read on my phone (I love my phone, especially when the case is off). I’ve even been known to allow an audiobook narrator to caress my ears with his or her experienced voice.
It’s a great time to be a reader. Paper, digital, and audio formats are all at our disposal. They each have benefits and drawbacks.
Paper
Peak book is the physical book and I’ll hear no arguments to the contrary. The combination of enticing title and attractive cover art immediately ignites my imagination with possibility. The cover broadcasts a tone or mood and is the first thing the book says to me.
Picking up the book and flipping through the pages give my other senses a chance to participate. The thickness and weight give a sensation of the time that will be spent reading. Books have a unique smell. The sound and feel of skin on paper as a single page turns is gratifying. The entire experience is a reminder that this object and I exist - we take up physical space, we have weight, and beyond our physical characteristics there is something more complex going on inside and that complexity can be discovered and known.
Progress in a physical book is one thin page at a time that aggregates and can be seen by the bookmark making its journey from one side to the other.
What are the drawbacks? If I get a hard cover edition from the library, it has a thin plastic cover that protects and secures the dust jacket. Protected reading, like other protected things, is still fun but not everything it could be.
Digital
I love my kindle. If I highlight a passage from a kindle book, whether I own it or it’s a library loan, that highlight will sync with Goodreads for me to reference later. It’s a size and weight that is just right for reading while walking. The screen is easy on the eyes for reading in full sunlight or in the dark. It can tell me how much time is left in the book or chapter.
Drawbacks: It’s a sterile, hard, flat, plastic nothing burger that has none of the appeal of a paper book other than the words themselves.
Audio
Audiobooks are great. They tell you how to pronounce places and names, like Her-my-oh-knee rather than Her-me-own. The narrator’s performance can be additive and infused with more than what my brain can come up with. I can listen on the go and make progress on a book during my commute or while exercising. I can carry multiple audiobooks in my pocket. I can carry multiple library catalogs in my pocket. Yes that’s right, I juggle multiple libraries at once. Don’t tell them.
Bless the library for still carrying Audio CDs, which are usually available and can bridge the gap of waiting for a hold. For example, I can get the Audio CD of Kristin Hannah’s The Women right now and get started while I wait in line.
Drawbacks: This isn’t exactly a drawback but listening to Lonesome Dove and then reading it were two different experiences. I cherish them both, but now I can’t help wonder if I’m missing anything if I only do the audiobook. For me, listening is like a road trip while reading is like a hike and I worry that I’m driving past landmarks that need to be observed more closely. Or not even a landmark but a small clump of wildflowers growing out of the rocks. It’s harder to highlight, share, and consider individual sentences or paragraphs. Right now I’m reading Demon Copperhead and there are sentences that deserve rumination. This FOMO I like to call FOMOOABS (Fear Of Missing Out On A Beautiful Sentence) has caused me to set aside the Demon Copperhead audiobook in favor of print.
How about you - what’s your favorite format? I’d love to hear.
Thanks for reading,
Kyle
Audiobooks for the win. Makes cleaning and cooking a joy as you just doing stuff while enjoying a book. Plus a great narrator is its own Bliss and I'll even consider books just for the narrator as I trust their judgement
I prefer physical books all the time but sometimes I would pick audiobooks over paper for novels that are older than the 21st century. With digital, I don't absorb the text as much as when I read it on paper. Sometimes I try though.