There is no better feeling than the satisfaction of physically turning the page of a good book. Many of the students at Steinbrenner High School who are avid book lovers also know the convenience of having an electronic reader, or E-Reader, such as a Nook, Kindle, or a device that is similar. The importance and greatness of an actual book is very underappreciated and isn’t given the credit it deserves.
To start off, I’ll be be the first to tell anybody about how a Barnes and Noble can be one of the happiest places on Earth. With being able to just download the book you want, you miss out on an entire experience of browsing endless possible good reads, using their free Wi-Fi to read a review on a future book purchase, and buying a mediocre Starbucks drink in the cafe. This store can be one of the few things that will actually get me out of the house and be productive while doing school work because of the positive environment and quiet atmosphere. To a true bibliophile, this can be a borderline religious experience, with everything from walking in empty handed and bored to leaving with a new novel and the excitement to run home and read.
On the topic of actual books- good, old fashioned books- are much better than their electronic counterparts. Something I have noticed in my lifetime is that many electronic readers are never the correct brightness, no matter what. Despite what all the commercials say, if an E-Reader is brought to the beach, it’s impossible to make out the faint words; if it’s brought into bed at night with the lights turned off, it has the brightness of a million suns. Yes, you could argue that this is a problem with any electronic device (like a phone or tablet), but with those it is easy to navigate the brightness setting so that my eyes aren’t either squinting and unable to see, or being blinded by the illumination.
Something else that makes me prefer a physical publication is just the feel and the smell of them. There’s a certain kind of softness to a book’s pages and a musty smell to a new title. The best way to describe it is like touching a soft blanket while smelling air freshener. Also, since most people learn best from hands-on learning, being able to feel the book helps people absorb all the information so much more than if they were to read it on their smart phone.
The last reason as to how books are supreme is that you can keep them for life. With E-Books, eventually, the Kindles will die out and there will be new technology and a newer way to read, but books have been around for centuries. For example, there’s a book of To Kill a Mockingbird that my grandfather had that he passed to my dad that he then passed down to me. So there is definitely something nice about knowing that this book will forever be yours to hold (or for you to give away, sell, or do whatever you want with it).
All that truly matters is that people are in fact reading, but the best way to read is always with a book.
Madeleine “Doreen” Coreen // Staff Writer
