Commonly known as “ebooks” -term that stands for electronic books-, these new devices are catching on many people according to recent surveys, which show that in the last years, there has been a marked increase in the number of units sold.
Nevertheless, many people still remain reluctant to these devices since, despite sharing the same name, their differences are huge. For instance, if we focus on the material, traditional books are easier to read, not only because the paper can be molded, but also because they can be read with all kinds of light (including direct sunlight). Besides, traditional books could be seen as a better investment by many experts as whereas almost nobody would steal classical books, ebooks are more valuable, therefore they are thieves’ target.
However, ebooks have some advantages that classical books don’t. This is exemplified by the fact that as of August 2009 there were more than 2 million books free from download. This has obviously a clear impact in the number of readers, which may easily enlarge as these books are free. Due to this, many unknown authors can make their way in this business, step by step, as publishing is much easier than before and thus, many books that nowadays remain in publishing houses because they would not live up to the companies’ standards, could be published.
In a nutshell, taking into account that both don’t offer the same features, they will both exist if you ask me, since the ecologist’s argument -ebooks protect the environment by using less paper- is a white lie. In fact, ebooks require various substances to produce, which are not biodegradable.
References:
- E-book. (2009, October 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:53, October 4, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=E-book&oldid=317782258
- Ian H. Witten, David I.Bainbridge (2002). How to build a library. Retrieved 20.19 October 4th, 2009 from http://books.google.es/books?id=mrlUvcs9koAC&dq=ebooks+characteristics&source=gbs_navlinks_s
- Todo ebook. La web del eBook. Retrieved 20.25 October 4th, 2009 from http://www.todoebook.com/index.asp
