COMPARE AND CONTRAST
ESSAY: E-BOOKS VS.
PAPERBOOKS

PRESENTED BY:
EDUVINA MARANO

FEBRUARY | 2015

E-Books vs. Paper Books
Eduvina Marano

Writing and reading are two vital elements in people’s life. Throughout the history, writing has been one of the most significant ways of communication and knowledge sharing. Millions of years ago our ancients used to write on walls and stones, in a way to share their knowledge, stories and what people think were predictions about the future.
Since the invention of the paper, many books have been written with the same purposes: educate and/or entertain. Nowadays, thanks to technological advances, paper books are being replaced by electronic books or “E-books”. In terms of content, E-books are the same books people would find in libraries or book stores. Basically, what makes them different from paper books is that E-books are presented in a digital form, with the advantage of being easy to download in several kinds of devices such as smartphones, desktop computers, laptops, tablets, iPods and kindles (devices designed with the specific purpose of carrying E-books). However, when it comes to price, environmental care, comfort and accessibility, there are significant differences between these two options. Which one is more convenient? It depends on the readers priorities.
Pricing is an important aspect for readers since they are constantly buying books.
In theory, E-books should be cheaper to produce because they do not require paper nor ink. Moreover, E-books do not have shipping charges since people are able to download them from their devices. However, some publisher make E-books just as expensive as paper books. So, we can say that it depends on the content of the books, as well as their popularity and demand.

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People tend to be more “eco-friendly” nowadays, which means that they are expending more money on products that do not make any environmental damage to earth. Because E-books are digital they contribute by reducing paper consumption, which helps to save millions of trees. On the other hand, some scientists indicate that in the long run, those who use more electronic devices cause more damage to the environment than those who go for the classic paper books.
In terms of comfort, there are some advantages and disadvantages in both Ebooks and paper books. I would say that it depends on the preferences of the readers.
Some people say that E-books are better due to the fact that you cannot carry an entire library in your pocket, but you can always carry a small or medium size device with all your books on it. Another say that reading paper books is more comfortable, most of the people read just one book at a time so there is no need to carry more than one. Moreover, when the reader is