> physical books have pages that are easily turned, quick random access to different parts of book, and lots of subtle cues to reader about current location, etc.
Even if that were true, the benefits of a digital reader far far outweigh its drawbacks over its physical counterpart:
1. Digital means, no space required. A library full of books can be easily accommodated on your 64GB MicroSD card!
2. Digital means no wear and tear. History is evidence to the loss of thousands of books and corresponding knowledge due to calamities. With digital, you can backup it to your Google-Drive/Dropbox and they will survive the ages.
3. Digital means no tyranny of authorities. Gone are the days when books used to be "banned" by state authorities for whatever reason. With digital, no one can subvert your freedom to read anything you like.
4. Most importantly, digital means easy sharing. If you have a book in PDF/EPUB, you can just email it, in case you want to share it with someone. With physical books, you have to physically snail-mail it which is quite cumbersome.
A lot of concerns you have made (like page-turning) in fact relate to our age-old habits since we are accustomed to physical books, and like many other things in life, all we have to do is just adapt to this new technology!
Oh, yes, that's a good list, and I agree almost entirely. I wrote the post you're responding to, and I'm basically a digital convert. Just this year I got rid of thousands of physical books that I'd accumulated over last 30 years, and which were huge drag on my life, both from space requirements and from weight (made moving residences more difficult).
Having said that, I would generally prefer to read a physical book. If I had a physical book and and a nice tablet with the same (but digital) book in front of me, I would likely be reaching for the physical book. Ink on paper in good lighting is preferable to any screen I've seen. And there's an ease to paging through a physical book that none of the devices I've read ebooks on can match. So, yes, I agree ebooks on are on the whole preferable. But I would never go so far as to say they always provide a better reading experience. So far my ebook reading experiences are not quite as satisfying as physical books, but any deficiencies are outweighed by other advantages of digital medium.
> 3. Digital means no tyranny of authorities. Gone are the days when books used to be "banned" by state authorities for whatever reason. With digital, no one can subvert your freedom to read anything you like.
That depends on how controlled the digital platform is: a few years ago Amazon deleted[1] purchased books from Kindles (George Orwell's 1984 - for maximum irony points).
Even if that were true, the benefits of a digital reader far far outweigh its drawbacks over its physical counterpart:
1. Digital means, no space required. A library full of books can be easily accommodated on your 64GB MicroSD card!
2. Digital means no wear and tear. History is evidence to the loss of thousands of books and corresponding knowledge due to calamities. With digital, you can backup it to your Google-Drive/Dropbox and they will survive the ages.
3. Digital means no tyranny of authorities. Gone are the days when books used to be "banned" by state authorities for whatever reason. With digital, no one can subvert your freedom to read anything you like.
4. Most importantly, digital means easy sharing. If you have a book in PDF/EPUB, you can just email it, in case you want to share it with someone. With physical books, you have to physically snail-mail it which is quite cumbersome.
A lot of concerns you have made (like page-turning) in fact relate to our age-old habits since we are accustomed to physical books, and like many other things in life, all we have to do is just adapt to this new technology!