E-Book vs Paper Book

Abdoul Koly
Prof: Gloria Ward
October 13, 2011 The E-Books vs. Papers Book The e-reader and paper book are becoming hot topic for many reasons today. E-books, one of the newest electronic sources are becoming more and more talked about in debates dealing with readings. Although paper books have their advantages the disadvantages seem to overwhelm in many cases. In my opinion, physical books will disappear due to technological progress and the environmental impact. First of all, I think technology will eventually replace the book but not completely. I think there will always be regular bookstores. Too many people will continue to want a real book they can hold and then, if they like it, put it on the shelf. There's something about the look of shelves full of books, not to mention browsing through them in the stores. However, e-books offer multiple advantages; they are easily readable, easily portable due to it size and shape, the use of controls with the e-book also seems to be very beneficial. When turning pages with a touch of a button is easy. Shrinking or enlarging print and moving to any part of the book with a click helps in many cases. Taking Note is much more powerful. Its also provide a touch-sensitive screen, and the advantages to this are being able to annotate text, highlight important passages, and scribble in the margins. When it come money saving and convenience; e-book is my choice. I download almost all my school textbook cheapest price plus a bunch of free classical books. Furthermore, e-book will overtake paper book is that the technology hold a great promise for distance learning, and its allow users in remote areas to access catalogs and material. I personally feel that the distance learning feature is nice because information can be obtained from not only one place but also even at the horn of African villages. Another most important beneficially about e-books is that they are environmentally friendly. You don't have to kill a few trees for each book, and let's not even talk about the ink. Certainly, e-books could save a lot of carbon dioxide when it comes to replacing textbooks, given that textbooks tend to last only a couple of years before being replaced by new editions. When you consider other factors such as the water consumed during book publishing, the picture becomes more clear. I learned in my chemistry class that it takes about seven gallons of water to produce the average printed book. Digital books, on the other hand, are electronically published on less than two cups of water. Are e-books perfect? No. There are still problems with energy consumption, raw materials used to make the e-book reading devices, but I believe that as technology improves, the ‘footprint’ that e-books leave on the environment will become smaller and smaller. For example, switch to solar power to recharge the reading device’s such as batteries will help save energy and reduce carbon dioxide. As an overall perspective I feel paper books, though convenient in some aspects as discussed, are probably more of a hassle to people who can’t afford textbooks. Money can also be saved with e-book. We know that in order to make our books, we chop down vast amounts of trees. Therefore, e-book provides us enormous advantages to enhance our environment. So yes I think it will replace the paper book. Technology will always move forward no matter what gets in its way. It's too bad though. I prefer the paper books way better and I can't imagine reading a whole book on a screen.