{"id":12321,"date":"2019-03-06T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=12321"},"modified":"2019-03-04T13:18:05","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T20:18:05","slug":"pros-and-cons-print-books-vs-ebooks-vs-audiobooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/pros-and-cons-print-books-vs-ebooks-vs-audiobooks\/","title":{"rendered":"Pros and Cons: Print Books vs. Ebooks vs. Audiobooks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>One of the long-term things I want to do is build a home library. Last weekend, I started cataloging my books and putting together plans for how to do that. I&#8217;m sure I&#8217;ll be posting more about that in the future, but the big question at the start of it was this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What are the advantages and disadvantages of each book format? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I spent some time thinking about it, as well as browsing the internet to get other people&#8217;s thoughts and perspectives. There are three major formats for books now: print, ebook, and audio. Here, as best as I can tell, are the major pros and cons with each:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Print Books<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pros:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Ownership. If it&#8217;s physically in your possession, then you are the undisputed owner of that book.<\/li><li>No screens, batteries, or power requirements. Does not require a device to use.<\/li><li>Easy to share with others (though there is a risk that they won&#8217;t return it! See ownership above).<\/li><li>High visibility. Because of this, print books can be symbols of status or social reputation. They also are much harder to ignore once you put them in a TBR pile. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cons:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Space intensive. You have to find a place for them.<\/li><li>Heavy, especially when boxed in large numbers.<\/li><li>Prone to damage, such as water damage, parasites, etc.<\/li><li>Requires shelving to properly store and display.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ebooks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pros:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Portability. Fits onto your everyday carry (EDC) device, such as a phone or tablet, as well as a dedicated ereader.<\/li><li>Requires very little storage space, both physically (on a device) and digitally (small file sizes).<\/li><li>Cheap, at least for indie published books.<\/li><li>Can read more easily at night, depending on the device.<\/li><li>Privacy. It&#8217;s easier to hide an ebook from people than it is to hide a print book, or even an audiobook.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cons:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Ownership is ambiguous at best. Do you own your ebook files outright, or do you own a license to use the files? Can Amazon (or whatever site you bought the ebooks from) remove the books from your device at their discretion? It&#8217;s been done before!<\/li><li>Requires a screen or device to use.<\/li><li>Difficult (though not impossible) to share. There is a kindle lending library, but I&#8217;ve never used it, and in the handful of instances where I&#8217;ve tried, I eventually gave up trying to figure it out. Copying and sideloading is possible, but tricky. Much easier to pull a print book off the shelf and hand it to somebody.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Audiobooks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pros:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Can listen while doing other things, especially driving or mindless chores.<\/li><li>Can also fit into the little gaps in your schedule, turning time that would otherwise be wasted into reading time.<\/li><li>Listening is a more passive exercise than reading. This can be a con as well as a pro.<\/li><li>Fits easily onto a phone or other EDC device, giving it many of the same portability advantages of ebooks.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cons:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Takes longer to read. You can speed up the narration, but it&#8217;s not as easy or efficient as skimming a book.<\/li><li>More expensive than the other formats. An exception might be for rare or out-of-print books that aren&#8217;t available in digital.<\/li><li>Larger files, which take up more storage space. You can easily keep a large library of ebooks on one device, but you&#8217;d need a server or a dedicated hard drive to do the same with a large library of audiobooks.<\/li><li>Ownership is ambiguous. See above.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>What are your thoughts? Let me know!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the long-term things I want to do is build a home library. Last weekend, I started cataloging my books and putting together plans for how to do that. I&#8217;m sure I&#8217;ll be posting more about that in the future, but the big question at the start of it was this: What are the&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/pros-and-cons-print-books-vs-ebooks-vs-audiobooks\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Pros and Cons: Print Books vs. Ebooks vs. Audiobooks<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1119,1200,1202,515,1201,1199,599],"class_list":["post-12321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-audiobooks","tag-book-formats","tag-books","tag-ebooks","tag-personal-home-library","tag-print-vs-digital","tag-thoughts-reflections","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-3cJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12321"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12331,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12321\/revisions\/12331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}