By Sophie Acebo | Reporter
There is nothing like walking into a library and seeing the plethora of books laid out around you. The slightly sweet smell of the deteriorating book pages is the most nostalgic feeling that warms my heart. The excitement of going to Barnes and Noble to buy new stories and meet new worlds and characters is a joy that is hard to describe.
With e-books and audio books on the rise, print books are slowly becoming the less and less popular reading medium, which is why we need to appreciate the beauty of a print book despite the digital, more convenient ways to read.
Now I’ll admit, I have used and still use e-books sometimes. We used iPads in high school, so e-books were extremely convenient because I could still read all of the books I wanted to without carrying an extra book around with me in my backpack. Downloading new books to read took less than a minute, and I actually found myself reading more often than I used to.
I don’t listen to audio books much, however podcasts are something I have been getting into recently. True crime podcasts are my vice, and I find that I like podcasts a lot more than I thought. They give you a nice break from listening to music and hearing something different as you drive around or do some chores.
My mom even got me a Kindle for Christmas one year as e-books were quickly on the rise. Soon, however, I found myself never using it (sorry mom!) because I just loved print books too much.
If you made me choose between reading print books and reading e-books, I would choose print books any day.
The satisfaction of completing a print book is a feeling that an e-book cannot match. The feeling of the pages between your thumb and forefingers as you flip through the lives of characters that become a part of you and worlds that entwine with yours is an experience that just can’t be replaced.
Having a physical collection of all of the books you’ve read is another reward that comes with print books. I love to read so, over the years, I’ve collected tons of books from my childhood until now. Seeing my own tiny library fills me with a sense of pride and nostalgia as each book brings me back to that time in my life. Those books are living proof of all of the knowledge and memories you’ve collected from these stories, and that’s an experience that Kindle or Apple Library can’t live up to.
I love being able to pick up and reread a book that I can clearly see is well-loved. Just by looking at my books, you can tell which ones I have read over and over again. The books I brought with me to the pool that now have wrinkled and discolored pages from the water, the dog-eared pages that were my makeshift bookmarks, the stars I wrote in pen next to my favorite moments in the book that I never wanted to forget; each book has its own story within a story to me.
This may all sound extremely dramatic but, if you love to read, you’ll understand the feeling. I hope that, as we welcome the digital age of reading, we never lose touch with the art of a print book.
