Print vs Electronic...

...in the book world. I could ramble forever about the ups and downs of having eBooks in the library and the hoops that publishers create, but this is my personal blog and not my librarian blog so I'll just talk about me.
 I have been reading eBooks for years, even before I had a Nook or a smartphone. I would sit and read off my laptop screen, which was not convenient for reading in bed. But now that I can read straight from my phone's apps or from my Nook, eReading is a lot easier and convenient. If I'm waiting at the Chiropractor's office I can pull up my current eBook and hope to get a few pages in before my appointment. If I want to read in bed and don't want to get up and turn off the light when I get sleepy, (thereby waking myself up) I can just read from my device. It was also handy this last weekend when I could no longer wait for the library to buy the newest Shelly Laurenston book and so I bought it for my Nook.

It was fast delivery and I read it right away but there is one thing that just doesn't work for me with eBooks. See I also read Kristan Higgins new book "The Best Man" this weekend. It was a print copy from the library and reading both of these books in the same weekend brought one specific reading detail to light for me. I get more of a sense of accomplishment reading a print book than I do reading an eBook. There is just something about watching that bookmark moving through the book that means something. The closer I got to the end the more I wanted to slow down and make it last while at the same time hurry and find out what happens. When I have read the very last page, the very last paragraph, the very last sentence and the very last word, I know I have finished something.

I just don't get that from an eBook. For one thing unless you are keeping track of page numbers as you read, there is no sense of progress. On my Nook I can see that I am on ### page of ### but if the story is good I'm scrolling to fast to track pages. On my Kindle app progress is only shown when you open up the book so if you are wondering how many pages are left you have to tap out of the full page view to see the progress bar. (Actual Kindles may be different. Remember this is about me and my experiences) I also miss the sense of accomplishment when finishing an eBook. I believe it is because the end often sneaks up on me so I don't take the time to absorb how it all comes together. I can't tell you the number of eBooks that I get to the end of and just want to keep scrolling, knowing there has to be more to the story. So all that to say that I love my stories whether in print or electronic but if I want to feel like I have 'read a book' it will have to be print for me.