HYDERABAD : “Nose buried in books” is a term which no longer holds any meaning in the technology driven lives these days. Instead we see noses buried in cellphones big enough to be called slates. Gone are the days when you find people with books in their hands. Ebooks have taken over the actual books due to their ready accessibility. With increasing number of people opting for the more easier to read --ebooks, City Express explores what the youth of the city have to say about :
Kedar Patwary, a student at Loyola Academy says “Ebooks are great! They are easy to get your hands on and you can access them from wherever you are. I like ebooks because they save a lot of trees, plus you have the liberty to customize the font and size to read it the way you like. And the best part is that they are far more cheaper than paperbacks. Yes, there is always going to be a romantic notion attached to holding an ‘actual book’ in your hands and I don’t think ebooks can ever take that place. I usually purchase the ebook version if the book is very lengthy (something like a textbook or a reference manual) and almost always opt for a paperback for novels and shorter books.”
Omar Roy, says “There isnt much divide between ebooks and books in real world. There was a sudden boom of ebooks but I believe that suddenly declined due to various factors like eye strain and drained battery life of phones. As an avid reader, I read better when I have a bounded book in front of me than a digitised version. Though ebooks might be easier to access but the recent state of them being costlier than the paper back puts off any reader. Publishing houses at present seem to be interested on selling books the old fashioned way. I guess the people of the future would embrace digitisation far better than we are today.”
Abhishek E. A says, “ I think it is very difficult to compare between ebooks and hard copies because it depends on an individuals preference, Personally, I feel a digital platform is harsh on the eyes, so I prefer hard copies. Also hard copies feel more authentic and make the reading experience more enjoyable. ”
Taking it a step further, Uma Narayan, software employee at Google says “ I prefer audio books to ebooks because they have music and emotions along with text. When reading complicated subjects, you tend to not understand them at certain places but when the narrator stresses on the word you understand it along with the context. Now a days we do not have the time and energy to sit and read a whole book because of on the go lifestyles. Audio books can be rewinded, paused and bookmarked and it is more like a musical illustration or a narration of personal story. It can be listened to as background music while doing mundane tasks. Its a boon for multi-taskers. ”
Harsh Vasani, “The steep rise in the publication of eBooks has still not made much of a difference to the popularity of actual “physical” books. I think both of them are here to stay and it will take a lot of time for the former to replace the latter.”Keeping up with technology is something we have to do in order to survive in this fast paced world but all book lovers agree that there is no better feeling in the world than curling up near the window with a book in the hand and coffee on the table.