The great battle: eBooks vs.

Paper Books
Which is better?

This question depends on two significant factors: Who the

question is leaded to? If you ask it to an ecologist,
undoubtedly, he will declare eBooks the winner. On the other
hand, the age is decisive, because how the person grew up and
adapted his brain to reading is important.
Let's remember briefly that eBooks are relatively new. In
2006, first steps towards reading on electronic devices were
given. To summarize, the Paper Book exists since the printing
press exists. The generation previous to the years these
devices appeared, grew up and studied reading Paper Books.

Cognitive reasons that could lead one person to

prefer an eBook over a Paper Book.
The New Book scent. When someone buys a paper book and
can open it for the first time, it has this characteristic scent,
which the reader identifies, since he has been among Paper
Books his whole life. It is possible the scent triggers a memoir
in his brain, since the scents provoke emotional reactions and
these, at the same time, recalls. Being associated with a book,
such recalls are mostly nice, for sure.
Of course, I am talking about readers of certain age (the
generation before year 2000), who, as I said before, grew up
reading books they can scent and touch. Which is the reason
why cold and rigid devices imply to use something new and
that generates no sensation in people.
On the other hand, technology reached us equally and that is a
fact. A young uses his cell phone, tablet or any electronic
device fourteen hours a day, adults too, either for need or
entertainment. Two or three generations living now use
electronic devices (let’s remember the first cell phone was
activated in 1973). Therefore, cognitively, our brain can also
retain memories undoubtedly linked to them.

Advantages of reading Paper Books

 Physical book gives us a personal pleasure because
seeing, scenting and touching its pages, activate
memories, mostly nice ones.
 A book can be carried to any place, we can travel with it
without fear of running out of battery or needing an
output to connect the device.
 Esthetic. A shelf book full of titles with their spines
showing interesting and provoking stories.
 The last one is the most simple. If you carry the book you
are reading with you and you lost it, you lost just one
book. When you lost your cell phone, you can lose a
whole library.

Advantages of reading eBooks

 The storage capacity in one device is an advantage, since
you can take your library wherever you go, without
carrying heavy volumes.
 The price issue is a true like a Cathedral. Electronic
devices democratized the access to information as never
before and being able to buy a book is not easy for many
people living in countries with economic troubles.
  Regarding Ecology, it is an advantage, since the eBook
leads to the end of wood exploitation, which industrially
reduce logging substantially. Publishers are aware of this
fact and they are using recycled paper more and more
during the last years.

Conclusion

In short I can say digital books published every year surpass

the physical ones. That is why many independent authors have
the possibility to see their literary creations published
digitally, and even being able to monetize their art.
This debate of eBook vs. Physical Book can be something futile
in a short amount of time due to acceleration of new features
in electronic devices. What will never change is the pleasure a
human being can obtain by reading a good book, either eBook
or Paper Book.