Physical Books or Kindle — Which is Best?
As an avid reader, I often get asked about the pros and cons of physical books versus e-readers. In this video, I want to dive into the topic and share my own personal preferences and experiences with both formats.
First of all, let’s talk about the appeal of physical books. For me, there’s something really special about the physical act of holding a book in my hands, flipping through the pages, and seeing my progress as I make my way through the story. There’s also a certain nostalgia associated with physical books, as many of us have fond memories of visiting the library or bookstore as children and picking out a new book to dive into.
Additionally, physical books don’t require any special equipment or technology to read. All you need is your eyes and the book itself, making them easily accessible no matter where you are. Physical books are also often more durable than e-readers, as they don’t rely on batteries or electronics that can malfunction or break.
However, there are also some compelling arguments in favor of e-readers. One major advantage is the convenience factor. With an e-reader, you can carry around an entire library’s worth of books in a device that fits easily in your pocket or purse. E-readers are also often more affordable in the long run, as you don’t have to pay for each book individually. You can often find a wide selection of e-books at discounted prices, or even for free through public libraries.
→ Support the Channel
patreon.com/_jared
→ Thinker
Interested in a free newsletter in which I provide section-by-section commentary on great works of philosophy? Subscribe here: https://jaredhenderson.substack.com
→ Links
Boox Note Air2 Plus: https://amzn.to/3ilemxg
Kindle Paperwhite: https://amzn.to/3ZmGIYK
→ Video Gear
Mic: https://amzn.to/3Uw7ZVw
Recorder: https://amzn.to/3Tz1uQp
Camera: https://amzn.to/3Ust3MT
Lens: https://amzn.to/3WXbAhd
These are affiliate links with Amazon. The channel earns a commission from each purchase — but it doesn’t cost you anything.
Some great books are hard to find in local stores… I like ebooks for that reason… Availability is my top reason… I do like physical books but can’t find all books physically…
Not a huge reader. Trying to start. 36 for reference if that means anything. My mom was a library media specialist for years and is a wealth of knowledge and loves real books. But she has/had so many. It will be a nightmare to move one day.
When I was 7 I got an encyclopedia set for Christmas and it weighed a million pounds and it’s hard to store books like that.
So digital works for me. I can kindle on my phone and listen to music when I’m slow at work without reddit or YouTube all the time. Very nice. It is just easier and more realistic for me in my starting journey. I get the battle of the phone ppl have but it’s just so easy for a busy dad when you can have a movie player, book reader, and dap in your pocket. My phone helped me get sober in 2019 sooo much.
I agree with you about having a physical book in my hands, even the smell of the paper sometimes is better. I read mostly manga on my Kindle or iPad with Shonen Jump app. I don’t like reading novels on screens, too much screen time.
I prefer physical reading on a screen for too long hurts my eyes
I enjoy reading both ways. I like reading digital books because of their availability, and you can highlight , and take notes without ruining the physical books.. My favorite website to get eBooks are Libby, Hoopla (both are through the library), and Humble Bundle which sells them in bundles, which also supports charities. I usually read physical books if I own them, of if the book I want to read is only available as a physical book from the library, I also like the fact that you can always tell what page you are on a physical book, because sometimes ebooks get the number of pages wrong.
I can’t for the life of me understand how someone can enjoy reading digital text, looking at yet another screen in their screen-consumed lives. I make every effort to get real (paper) books, even if that is hard in my part of Europe.
debating on the Kindle because i’m about to start traveling for months at a time and feel physical books would take up space in my bag
My favorite feature of the Kindle besides the backlight and convenience factor has to be the dictionary feature. You can simply tap a word or notable person and it will tell you all about them rather than forcing me to do the research on another device. It’s brilliant.
I don’t own an e-reader and I don’t feel any desire to. Between work and playing video games and watching TV/movies, I spend plenty of time looking at screens, and reading is a welcome break from it.
After spending more time developing a physical library and reading more books this year, I prefer an e-reader in a couple of scenarios. Travel, especially international travel, is where an e-reader shines just on space/weight savings. I also prefer an e-reader where I’m looking to borrow fiction from the library that I only intend to read once, so I’m not buying lots of books that occupy my limited shelf space. As I get older I appreciate larger text that an e-reader can provide, especially if a book is typically in the mass media paperback format. I also appreciate not holding up a doorstopper-sized physical book while reading, though I am not 100% convinced it is a strict advantage over physical books.
I appreciate physical books more if I will reference them continuously, or if I intend to re-read them. And admittedly, I appreciate the shelf or two of Penguin Classics series books I’m building up – they do look nice!
I prefer e-books because of the text-to-speech feature.
I am in agreement with you, I don’t think this question is either/or, but a weighing of the advantages and disadvantages of both media for one’s needs and use-cases. Personally, I have a preference for physical books, but I do read more using my Kobo eReader. In general, I read fiction on my Kobo, nonficion in physical. Though I may read lighter non-fiction (e.g. Mari Kondo’s books) on my Kobo since they aren’t too difficult and I might only read them once, and may choose to purchase physical copies of fiction that I believe I will read multiple times and would really like a physical copy of.
Physical BOOk = WINNER!
They are NOT both fine! READ PHYSICAL BOOKS.
Books are not something that you just read words in. They’re also a tool to adjust your senses. When I’m not feeling well there are times that I can’t take in what I read. When that happens, I try to think about what could be hindering my reading. There are books that I can take in smoothly even when I’m not feeling well. I try to think why. It might be something like mental tuning. What’s important when you tune is the feeling of the paper that you’re touching with your fingers and the momentary stimulation your brain receives when you turn pages…
-Makishima Shougo
I do think that eReaders are more convenient, and as a high school student it might be easier for me to use that, but I just feel very attached to the idea of physial books and going shopping for them, building up my own little library, and lending them to friends. I feel like if I had both I would end up reaching for the kindle first and replace my physical books, which I don’t want to do
Physical Books are the greatest in my opinion. I love going to a bookstore and buy a book and i really enjoy reading my books physically rather than just with a screen. I hate audiobooks! I get distracted easily, It’s pretty annoying to me. Physical Books give me a calm and gentle vibe, It gives me peace! It’s amazing. I’ll save maybe for a kindle one day tho! It seems cute to see all these youtubers decorating their kindles with stickers, and maybe it also could be worth it. But I’ve seen some bad reviews of it too. I also really love reading stories on my device, It makes me happy when im bored or just don’t have a physical book. I look forward to reading in digital if i want to read a different story. Overall, im staying with Physical Books all the way!! 📚❤️
You always bring fresh and exciting ideas!
I ❤ books. But I think about trees and feel I should go for Kindle
Having read all my life and being diagnosed with a visual disease at the age of 17 I graduated slowly over the years from reading regular books to reading large print books, reading large print books with a magnifier to reading audiobooks back when they were actually on vinyl from the library of Congress. I can say that I miss a real book a lot because at this point my 10 X magnifier does not even work to read a book with But. It has been a godsend to have audible books and also the Kindle app on my iPad. iPad or any Apple device allows you to zoom this is not stretch. It is zoom and I can zoom the material Quite large and there I can read the printed word again. I still prefer a paper book I would adore to be able to have a lovely paper book on my lap and read it there, but I have to hold it so very close to my face with a magnifier that when you’re reading two or three words at a time you tend to lose the meaning of the whole sentence. All I can say is that at82 I still read approximately 4 to 5 books a month and love it as much as I ever did with audible books I don’t just sit there and listen. I crochet while I’m listening, which does not affect my concentration at all. If my work gets complicated I turn off the book attend to it and go back so I agree with you. The printed book is still a preference but the fact that we have all these other options is just wonderful. I’m glad that I’ve lived long enough to be able to take advantage of all this technology.
Love looking at physical books but i like reading on kindle enough that i mostly read that way. Easier to carry, store, and can get library books on it with a touch of a button
Not Kindle definitely…
If you want to have the best reading experience try good Android based e-reader and read from any app (free or paid). Physical books are the best but not when you’re travelling a lot.
you can put pdf in kindle… i have never bought a single book
i also prefer physical books because it gives me sense of pleasure and i love the smell of the pages and i just can feel what i am reading
I love both however I do prefer my kindle
I moved the bulk of my library to kindle because I moved a lot over about a decade. Saving space and weight was necessary, but I’ve kept my favorites in physical form. I went from 14 boxes of books to 3! E-versions are also cheaper, so my collection has greatly expanded.
very honest !
Hey Jared, I love your video and I just recently subscribed. I love physical books for various reasons. I’m moving to another country soon and I have to give away a good portion of my books because of the cost of shipping. I was thinking of buying eReader and then just buy the ebook version of the books I give away. However I’m having a tough time with the idea of reading from a screen lol I’m trying to limit my screen time as much as possible. 😅
I’m going back to reading physical books because I’m constantly looking at a screen, and the fact that people are putting subtitles in all of their videos is absolutely destroying my eyes. I have constant eye strain now and need a break from screens. I’m even struggling with sleeping because of all the excessive screen use I do. So physical books is the way to go for me. I just rent books from the library so I don’t have to deal with storing them in my house.
For me I prefer physical books because I like to feel, touch, turn pages/mark and know where I’m at. I do agree that books take up too much space but no different than a kindle. Kindle wise, there are some ups and downs within a situation. The good parts of a kindle is that you don’t have to pack 10 books for vacation. As for marking the page that you paused on, well those steps are intense. If I did a swot analysis there probably would be the same equal amount of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The weakness and threat for kindle within an opportunity is that it’s just gonna turn into a tablet/computer phone. Physical bookwise, it might not be necessary to make hardbound and paperback within duplicates just paperback only. Anyways, from listening to all audiences situational perspective views including elderlies there are millions of scenarios from my education realization, it’s just sad that all generations don’t deep dive the scenarios/elderly as well but also pple aren’t around other people/inclined to comfort zone which is fine within a situation
I use my kindle for fun books. But for history, Bible study, non fiction and some classics I get the hard copy.
You can load books into Kindle too
If you don’t hold the PHYSICAL book, you don’t have it. The Ministries of Truth around the world can delete content at will, and they will. It’s highly unlikely that a banned book will be removed from the bookshelf in your office.
I enjoy both, and especially enjoy Kindle for casual/pop fiction. Another potential benefit of physical: There are studies showing people retain / understand better from a physical page than even a Kindle, let alone a phone or laptop.
ebooks are free. You can’t beat that!
E-books are good, just not Kindle.
I’m lately only reading e-reader for dark mode due to eye issues.
I used to prefer physical books so am trying to think of more benefits. Maybe one is that, I get to less think of the form and appearance of the book, reading in the same font and layout at first made me feel even wildly different books were more similar for some reason. So I have to read more mindfully, if that makes sense, in order to really remember things instead of just putting the book back on my shelf and being able to see it and think "ah I read that".
Never kindle it’s from evil amazon !
you like technology = Kindle & ebooks…..you do not lie technology = physical book
I use an audio book while reading the book in my hand following along with the reader
Physical books take up too much space and weigh too much.
The answer is…. Kobo 😁
I have come to prefer digital books mainly because of what I assume is OCD. I worry about taking books with me, harming them, getting them dirty etc. while my phone or kindle I dont care.
Agree. Genre dictates the mechanism
So in your opinion is it better to have a tablet and use Google books or kindle?
Given how easy it is to counterfeit physical books to steal the royalties of the authors. Is purchasing ebooks the better option to ensure the positive growth of global knowledge, wisdom & intelligence?
I prefer physical books
Check out the Personal Development books I wrote.
I love physical books but because of mobility and heath issues I had to downsize my house to a small home with much less room for physical books. I’m adjusting to a mostly ebook life. I do utilize my library here for both ebooks and physical books. I have a micro SD card with 1TB of extra storage so I won’t run out of space anytime soon. Here in Florida I have access to just about every library book in the state through the interlibrary loan system.
** Thank You for trying to help, but it ALREADY DOES NOT WORK!! **
Click "download and transfer via USB" gives an error message of:
"You do not have any compatible devices registered for this content. Buy a Kindle or get the free Kindle reading app."
(Yes, I have the Kindle reading App.)