Why I parked the eBook and have returned to buy traditional books – Gizmodo in Spanish

more than three years ago I bought my trusty Kindle Paperwhite. To this day I still use it, but in the last year I have just bought a digital book. The rest have been thick and wonderful hardcover volumes. I am not the only one who has taken this strange return to the role

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A increasing trend

on February 3 the Wall Street Journal echoed a persistent rumor that Amazon will open between 300 and 400 physical bookstores is made. At the close of this article, the news has not yet been confirmed but is deliciously ironic considering that Amazon is the company’s physical bookstores have closed in the United States. The company opened its first non-digital store last November in Seattle.

a customer in physical bookstore Amazon in Seattle. Photo: AP

The news is ironic, but it should not be so surprising. After years of losing ground to the electronic book, the traditional book has experienced a sudden but steady recovery. According to Nielson Bookscan in 2015 has sold 587 million books on paper than in 2014. The fastest growing segment is experiencing is the hardcover. The eBooks are stuck at 25% of sales. Just two points above 2014, and that in the United States, which is one of the countries where they are best positioned.

The disadvantages of technology

As much as we sell it as a panacea for reading, e-book readers have their drawbacks. Buy a traditional book and start reading it is such a complex buy an apple and taking a bite process. Buy an eBook requires a minimum level of learning. You have to download it, sync your device and find the file. The process has been lightened considerably compared to what it was 10 years ago, but the experience of reading an electronic book remains maddeningly counterintuitive in many cases.

a technical problems that may occur joins a problem that is more typical of the old continent to the new: the price of books. The case of Spain is particularly ridiculous. Printed books have a 4% VAT. Electronic 21%. The European Union has rejected both percentages equate to low, so it is not uncommon to find an electronic copy is slightly cheaper than its namesake paper.

Efficiency vs pleasure

it is often accuses the traditional book of inefficiencies in the distribution and sale. Certainly it is much easier to hang a digital file on a server and let readers around the world to buy and download it on their devices. Artificial insemination, to give an analogy that the most obtuse futurism enthusiasts can understand, is also a very effective scientific process, but still find the traditional sex more satisfying.

Jokes aside. The effectiveness of the process of distribution and sale of books is an issue that I fully brings to heave. The reason is that not rush and my experience with books is not limited to the act of opening and reading what you put into them. I like to collect them, and collecting is surrounded by completely irrational and ineffective ritual from the point of view of a messiah technological, but extremely satisfactory. I like to get lost in bookstores eyeing backs on the shelves in the hope that some tempt me and come home with me. Let alone what I enjoy in a market of old books. I like the smell of paper from a new book, and that slight whiff of musty old books. My favorite corner of the house remains the wall next to a chair where I treasure all my books, old, new and often dusty.

All that physical component disappears tragically with electronic book. Instead of a wonderful corner of the house to relax and enjoy your collection, what you get is a rectangle of black plastic and glass. It’s like comparing food from a restaurant menu of a freeze-dried astronaut. In both cases probably it feeds, but …

Market street books. Photo: Radiokafka / Shutterstock

The physical and material existence books has an additional value. One of the few things of value that my mother left me was an immense collection of books that I’ve seen to cherish and expand. Recently my youngest daughter was born. What will be my legacy when she grows up? A password to my account on Amazon? A USB memory?

Digital books are efficient, accessible and convenient, but they are light years away from satisfactory.

You buy a styled object knowledgeable have spent buying a license sad to read such knowledge if and when we pay electricity and the owner of the storage platform cloud decide not restrict access. Digital books are efficient, accessible and convenient, but they are light years from satisfactory.

The issue of learning

My love of reading was conceived years ago (too) with comics, but much of my leap into the books was based on the simple curiosity and the fact that I had on hand at home. The library house was full of intriguing covers as attractive as I called to come and discover its mysteries. Images of black and white eReader have appeal equivalent to an economic Gazette 1905, and I’m not sure that tablets offer the same level of accessibility as a physical book on a shelf.

a father shows his son a book in a bookstore. Photo: AP

In the same vein is expressed Naomi S. Baron, author of Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World and director of Learning Center, Research and Learning University in the United States. Baron conducted an extensive survey on reading habits among university students and came to an interesting conclusion: 92% say concentrate better when reading traditional books when it does in e-books. We are not talking about grandparents who cling to the paper book while snarling over the Internet and give sips a brandy snifter. They are students of about 20 years and plenty familiar with new technologies.

92% of university ensure better focus on reading about books on paper than on eBooks.

Among the reasons given is the ease and immediacy to interact with the text, and the absence of distractions such as those arising every few minutes on the screen of a tablet and, less frequently, in an eReader. Baron’s study concludes that the level of understanding of the text in an eReader is lower than a physical book.

The future is hybrid

Despite all what has been presented, it would be absurd to deny the benefits of electronic book. For starters there is the issue of size. Instead of carrying a large volume just load a tablet just over 200 grams that fits in your pocket. Models that integrate backlight make it possible to read even in total darkness without disturbing anyone. It is also easier to use outdoors without fear that the wind moves us pages. Most of conventional books can not be hold comfortably in one hand, an eReader other. They are ideal for reading on the subway or bus.

Many brandish the stick of sustainability in favor of the eReader, but the relationship between the production of books and unnecessary paper consumption has much cheap demagoguery. A study by Greenpeace, in Spain a total of 170 kilos of paper per year are consumed and recycled only 84 kilos. According to the Federation of Publishers’ Guilds of Spain , the average purchase of books per capita per year stands at 10.1 books (including text). If we are very generous and we attach a weight of one kilo each book is that only 5.8% of the paper we consume is for books. Maybe we should start guide our environmental complaints to those fancy yogurt containers, electoral propaganda, instruction manuals on paper or Ikea catalog.

In short, it is likely that neither the eReaders and traditional books disappear. The first are the perfect substitute for paperback and a powerful engine that allows you to distribute the culture of a quick and comprehensive manner. The latter have lost ground, but its role in the dissemination of knowledge and literature as a mere intellectual pleasure remains too important a piece of plastic that can replace the evening to the morning.

Home. Ben + Sam / Flickr, under Creative Commons

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