It’s been about a year since I stopped buying physical books whenever possible.
I love the feel of physical books, but two features of eBooks overshadow the enjoyment I get from holding a physical book.
Bookshelf in Your Pocket
The ability to read any book anywhere is incredible. No matter on my computer, iPhone, iPad, or iPod, I can be synced to the furthest spot on any book.
Anytime I’m standing in a line, I pull out my phone and read a few pages.
Highlighting
My favorite feature of eBooks – the ability to highlight text and add notes.
This is much different than just underlining the passages with a pen in a physical book. These can be accessed all at once and shared with others.
Readmill, which I just discovered, allows you to browse the highlights of friends. It has the potential to become one of my favorite social networks, if only more people would join (Me on Readmill)
The world is trending toward eBooks. It’s not surprising. Easy to shrug off eBook reading, as I did, until I actually tried it.
And of course, you can always make your iPad and Kindle feel like a physical book.
Connect with me on Twitter: @BenNesvig
Ben Philabaum says
I’m with ya. I just finished reading the Steve Jobs biography in print (xmas gift) and plan on that being the last physical book I read in a while.
I love highlighting but sometimes I want to see them all in one place. So usually when I finish an ebook I always go back through my highlights and notes and copy them into Evernote so that I can go back and easily and quickly reference everything.
Brian Johnson says
Now you just need to take the next step and hop on board the audio book train.
Ben Nesvig says
I’m half-way on it. Back in August when I bought the GoPro, I was able to take $100 off the order by signing up for a year of Audible.
I listen to at least one a month. Though, whenever Audible has the $4.99 sale, I go nuts on buying audioboks.