Why eBooks are Reigniting the Passion for Reading
Reading is known for being the kind of activity you do because of two very different reasons. The first is that it’s something you enjoy doing, being able to immerse yourself in a good book and get away from the real world for a while; and the second being that it’s something you are made to do while you’re in education, either to develop your literacy skills or to read up about a topic that you’re being tested on in the coming weeks and months.
Some people genuinely do enjoy reading and find it relaxing, while others hate it with a passion and can’t think of anything worse than sitting around reading about fictitiou characters or learning about things that happened in the past. Since the development of eReaders, however, reading is starting to become cool among the younger audiences, and people can download the latest releases from their favourite authors and genres from websites like eBooks by Sainsbury’s or whichever are compatible with their chosen devices, and they can be reading in seconds.
Many schools are bringing in the latest technologies and allowing students to learn using eReaders, tablets and laptops and they have found that by making lessons more interactive – where students are paying attention and using apps and the various forms of software – they are actually learning more and showing a much greater passion towards reading. In the playground, it’s considered to be “uncool” to be reading a book while everyone else is playing Angry Birds or Candy Crush, but by holding an eReader, they could theoretically be looking at anything on the web when in actual fact it’s a book meaning even the most secret of bookworms can get their fix.
Having something in your hands that you’re genuinely interested in is far more likely to keep your attention, to make you want to use it and to encourage you to use it in your free time. A traditional book often fails to inspire, especially when you’re at a relatively ‘dull’ part of the story, while an eReader will allow you to take a break, to surf the web, and even to look up more information about the topic when you use a web-enabled device. Some eReaders will put links into the text for the reader to click on and be taken to dictionary definitions, encyclopedia web pages or images that aim to clarify confusing or important parts and this can help it to make much more sense than a print copy.
In the “smartphone generation”, where everybody wants the latest information wherever they are and the most modern gadgets to get that information on, it has made reading much simpler. Carrying books has always been difficult, especially for a commuter on the train squashed up against other passengers with only one free arm, and eReaders have enabled them to read just about anywhere – especially now some manufacturers have produced anti-glare screens and back lights so that you can always see the text.
This isn’t to say that the paperback book is dead, however. Far from it in fact. A study in the Guardian in 2013 revealed that of the 16 to 24-year olds studied, the age bracket most in favour of technology, 62% prefered the traditional printed book to an eReader. Many of the responses to the survey were along the lines of “I like the smell of a book” or “I like to see full bookshelves” and while many did say that they just prefer the all-round experience of holding a printed book, others were much more in favour of the practicalities offered by an eReader that include the ability to store hundreds of different titles on the one device, and the light, easy to carry design.
The eBook is just that latest stage in the evolution of literature which has progressed from its primitive stages of stone and parchment, through to typewriters and the printed books that we’ve come to know and love (or hate) and now we have the electronic book. For some, the issue is that reading just isn’t fun for them, for others it’s more of a case of traditions, while for others it’s about having the latest gadgets that all their friends have. Sure, you still have to pay for each book you download (although there are plenty of free titles available), and the eReader itself does set you back a fair amount to start with, but that is a one-off expense. Some people will already have a device that allows for reading, such as a tablet with access to eLibraries so that expense has already been paid in this instance.
The saying goes that you should never judge a book by its cover, and the same is true with eBooks. More and more people have been buying eBooks and eReaders over the past few years with sales of traditional texts dropping substantially over the years and plenty of publishers have released statistics to back this up. However, many authors have reported that overall sales of their titles have either remained constant, or improved, thanks to eReaders. By making reading cool, both inside and outside the classroom, technology has reignited the passion for reading that many adults wished they could have got through to their children (or themselves) much earlier.
Reading doesn’t always have to be for educational purposes and doesn’t have to be the sort of thing you only do when the power goes out or when you’re lying on a beach on holiday. It allows you to relax, to be entertained and to be informed – three things that we all love!
