E-BOOKS VS PAPER BOOKS

Nowadays, when you're sitting in a hospital waiting room, for instance, it's very common to see people reading with an e-book, while a few years ago the most usual thing was to see people with a classic paper book. This new way of reading is becoming more and more popular, but does this mean that paper books will disappear?

On the one hand, e-books have a lot of advantages that have made them become popular in few years. Firstly, they are easy to carry, because you can have more than 1000 different books in it, while paper books are heavy. Another important reason is that they are enviromentally friendly, and it's important because some trees have to be cut in order to make just one book.

On the other hand, paper books have also their positive aspects. For example, with a classic book you will never have to worry about the message appearing in the screen and saying: Battery low! Furthermore, some books are difficult to find in digital version, while you know you always can go to the bookshop near your house and the book you're looking for will be there.

On balance, I think e-books are an excellent invention, because I can download books from the internet in a few minutes, and you don't have to worry if you don't like the book you're reading, you just have to click on "delete" and download another one.

PATRICIA MARRA-LÓPEZ VIDAL

E-BOOKS

In recent years, electronic books, called commonly E-books, have created a big controversy among readers. Are they replacing traditional books? Does it mean that they’re better?

Lovers of traditional printed books say that these electronic devices aren’t really books because you can’t smell them or feel the touch of the pages. But that’s not the only reason why people don’t want to use them. All these new technologies are very expensive and they can run out of battery so you have to charge it if you want to keep reading a book. Moreover, if you want to store more digital books in it, you need a computer or any other electronic device to do it.

On the other hand, there are people who believe that E-books have several advantages. First of all, they are environmentally friendly because they aren’t made of paper, so they could somehow prevent deforestation. Furthermore, they weigh less than printed books, they are portable, and you can have hundreds of books in it and your bag still weighs the same.

To conclude, although I’m one of these printed book lovers, I think that e-books are really an improvement because they have made the reading easier for everyone and they help the environment.