the reading experience

It is finally 2012, and this means the last book in the Wheel of Time series will soon be released.  I never caught up to the latest book-- I stopped at book 10, and I'm in the process of re-reading them from the beginning since I've forgotten many of the important plot turns.

I'm starting with New Spring, and I've been reading it mostly on the subway.  This is the first physical book I've read on the subway in a while.  Ever since I got an Android phone, I've been reading mostly ebooks on the subway.  It's just way more convenient.  Reading a physical book on the subway is annoying, especially when you can't find a seat.  If you're standing and reading, you have to hold the book open with one hand, which strains my fingers, especially if it is a thick book.  Most annoying is that reading a physical book usually takes two hands on the subway, especially if the book hasn't been broken in.  New paperback books just naturally want to fall back into a closed position.  Old books that I reread over and over will generally want to stay open since the binding has been worn and the pages lift apart from each other easily with a flick of the wrist, but this does not happen in new or gently read books.  If I'm standing and on a subway, I have to find the tipping point in the momentum of the subway so I can safety remove my hold from the pole and flip the page without falling over into somebody else.  This is especially annoying when I've come to a very interesting part of the book and the subway is lurching to a start or stop.

As convenient as eBooks are, I still strongly prefer phsyical books.  Many people think I am anti-ebooks because I work in publishing, but working in publishing has nothing to do with my preference for a physical book.  For me, eBooks are simply just not as good as physical books.  The convenience is wonderful, but the drawbacks are far too great for me to prefer them over a physical book.  For starters, the lines break differently and you don't get the same fonts.  People underestimate what a font can do to a book.  For example, the Harry Potter books are set in Garamond font.  When I read Harry Potter, this is the font I associate it with.  It fits the story and the writing style.  Garamond is a old-style looking font that looks neat and flows smoothly enough to still look modern.  Is this not a perfect font for a book about wizardry set in modern day England?  It just wouldn't be the same if I read Harry Potter in Arial or Comic Sans.  Reading eBooks also strains my eyes faster than reading a physical book.  This is because you are staring at a screen that emits some light instead of having light naturally bounce off the page.  I've also found that I usually cannot read eBooks on the default font.  If the default font for an eBook is not sans-serif, I will always always change it to one that is.  I always hate doing this because I always want to read a book the way it was originally meant to read.  The thing with reading things on a digital device is that a font on screen is displayed with pixels, and pixels just don't display serifs very nicely.  The serifs will seem to bleed too far into the next letter and if your eyes are tired, you may find that the words appear blurry.

My second biggest complaint against eBooks is that I love the feel of paper.  Paper does wonders to a book.  Some books just feel like they were meant to be printed on wonderfully thick, creamy paper that turns crisp, or on a glossy, heavy, bright white paper that lays flat and refuses to warp.  Let's use Harry Potter as another example.  I bought a set of the UK paperback editions of Harry Potter and the paper has a medium density, perhaps it is a 50# stock, and it has a wonderful cream color.  It also has a look of graininess, but when I run my finger over it, it feels smooth like a buffed, but not yet lacquered, piece of wood.  When I turn the pages of this book, my fingers and eyes register the weight, color, transparency, and feel of this paper, and it feeds into my senses as I am reading and it participates to the mood of the book.  The stock that Harry Potter is printed on is obviously a common paper stock and I'm not saying that a book has to have a special paper stock, but it's obvious that a heavy photo stock would not do for Harry Potter.  When I am reading an eBook, I lose this.  I lose the paper completely, and I lose the feedback that the paper lends to the reading experience.

For me, a physical book creates a different reading experience than an eBook, and I think a lot of people who also prefer physical books probably feel the same way.  I suppose this is why I fell in love with publishing though, because as much as I love good writing I also love everything else that a book has to offer.  If eBooks get people to read more though, then why not.  I really don't care how people read or what they read.  I just think it's good if a person is reading and they enjoy it!