In the following post I want to discuss some aspects about books, e-books and audio books.
I am generally a fan of any kind of books as a medium, because on the one hand it can tell interesting stories and create beautiful places in your imagination which but on the other hand they can teach you about all kind of topics you are interesting in. Of course they cant teach you everything, you have to experience many things in your life on your own, but they can you give idea and of course entertain you.
I read different kind of books. Fiction and non fiction.
On the fiction side I read many books which fall under the category Science fiction and fantasy. I like stories which take place in a different world and tell a message which can be applied to our world. The intention of reading fiction books is of course not only because they teach me something, rather because the entertain me and open my eyes.
Next to fiction books I read also non fiction books. I read this books to learn about specific topics (like eg. Artificial Intelligence and what it means to our society) and so called self development books, which tell you how to be successful in life, be more happier and more productive. Many modern self development books are written interesting and cover current topics like how technology affect our day to day life and therefore can give you directly tips how to create a more happier life. When reading books I often start to think about activities I do at my day to day basis and how I can optimize them. I am a big fan of optimizing my life, because instead of money my time is limited and therefore can be incredible valuable for myself.
Because I want to optimize my life, I have considered of the last years what type of book medium - books, e-books or audio books - can create the biggest value to me.
Classical books have many advantages and disadvantages in my opinion. They are physical, which is great because you can put them on your book shelf and present them and borrow then to friends or family, but on the other side it may be problematic if you want to carry on multiple books on your way to work or university with you because they take a huge amount of place in your backpack. Nevertheless I think they can give you the best reading experience when you are at home. Also many books like e.g. technical books or programming books are great as classic books, because you can page through the book very easily, which is a little bit more difficult if you consider e-books.
E-Books are great if you travel a lot or just want to read while you are in the train or in the bus to work or university. You can fit a lot of books in a tiny device which can be always with you in your backpack. Also many e-Books are a little bit cheaper next to classical books. However they are în my opinion not so elegant like classic books, because they are not physical and you need an extra e-book reader if you want to have the full experience of reading. You can read on your smartphone, but this would not be the experience of reading you would have on a separate device.
Disclaimer: I had an e-book reader for around one and a half years. A month ago or so the screen broke inside the device because of unknown reason. Unfortunately the warranty does not include this kind of damage, so I currently does not have any functional e-book reader.
If you are to lazy and sometimes to tired to read, you does not have to miss books. Fortunately there are audio books. They are in my opinion the better version of e-books. If you have to switch bus when driving to work you don’t have to interrupt your reading experience, which overall optimizes the amount of “pages” you will be able to experience. Also can relax exciting stories and adventures even if you are tired and want to close your eyes. I currently try out audible, so can get e-books digital relatively cheap.
I experienced books, e-books and currently I hear a lot of audio books. E-books are currently my last choice, because my last e-books reader just broke as mentioned earlier and audio books are in my opinion the better e-books. Nevertheless, I don’t want to miss classical books, because for some use cases physical books are more helpful, e.g. if you dont want to read a book from the first page to last page, rather you just want to have it as a reference, like e.g. programming books.
Written on December 15th, 2018 by Lasse Schultebraucks