If you are a book purist, you might scoff when I recommend an e-reader instead of buying physical books, and I won’t blame you. The allure of the smell of pages, the weight of the book in my hands, the whole ritual, is hard to resist.
However, if you allow me some leeway to convince you, there’s a strong argument to be made against physical books and in favor of using e-readers. So let me make the case for e-readers, because once you understand what you’ve been missing, it’s hard to go back.
Your entire library fits in your bag
This is the most obvious advantage, but it doesn’t get enough credit. I always read more than one book at a time, and carrying two or three physical books around is not realistic. Thick books alone are a chore to carry.
With an e-reader, you carry hundreds of books in a slim package. Switching between titles takes a second. If you travel frequently, this alone is reason enough to make the switch.
A thousand-page hardcover is great for your bookshelf but terrible for your commute.
Fat books are a workout, not a reading experience
If, like me, you are into fantasy books, you know they can be a behemoth to handle. You have to constantly shift how you’re holding it, find a way to keep it open, and somehow also stay comfortable. Thin books are fine, but the moment a book crosses a certain thickness, it starts working against you.
An e-reader weighs the same regardless of whether you’re reading a short novel or a massive fantasy series. That’s it. Whether I am reading The Count of Monte Cristo or the next book in Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive series, my Supernote Nomad remains the same.
Reading at night without waking anyone up
I do a lot of my reading at night, and this is where physical books completely fall apart for me. Lamps and book lights never feel comfortable. The light is never quite right, and if you share a room with someone, the whole setup becomes a problem.
Most e-readers, including Kindles, have a built-in backlight that you can dim to whatever level feels right. You can even switch to warm light mode, making it easier on your eyes.
I’ve read at 3 AM with the brightness all the way down, and it felt completely natural. No lamp and no squinting required.
Look up any word without losing your place
English is not my first language, and even for native speakers, encountering an unfamiliar word in the middle of a chapter is common. With a physical book, your options are to grab your phone and look it up, which almost always leads to distraction, or skip it and lose a bit of meaning.
On a Kindle or most other e-readers, you tap the word and the definition appears instantly. You can translate it, add it to a vocabulary list, and get back to reading in seconds. I look up far more words now than I ever did with physical books, and my reading comprehension is genuinely better for it.
Taking notes you’ll actually use later
I used to annotate physical books with a pen, and those notes would just sit there on the page, never to be seen again. Transferring them somewhere useful took more effort than I was ever willing to put in.
With my Supernote Nomad, I can use its Digest feature to clip what I am reading and quickly add any additional handwritten notes. I can then export those notes to Obsidian and process them.
If you use any e-reader, highlighting a passage and adding a note will take a couple of seconds. Most e-readers also aggregate all your highlights and notes in one place, allowing you to quickly riffle through your notes without flipping pages.
With physical books, my notes died on the page. With an e-reader, they became something I actually use.
Since these are digital notes, you can process them into your note-taking app to further digest the material.
Books are cheaper and easier to buy
Buying physical books is always more expensive than getting the digital version. Also, since most publishers are phasing out mass-market paperbacks, we are left with trade paperback and hardcover options, which may look better but also cost significantly more.
E-books don’t have that problem. I have purchased several books at less than half the price I would have paid for a physical version. Also, most of the time, e-books are on sale, making them even more affordable.
And when you find a book you want to read at midnight, you don’t have to wait for a delivery or drive to a store. You buy it and start reading immediately. The convenience is hard to overstate once you get used to it.
Should you switch?
If you love the experience of physical books, the covers, the smell, the shelf aesthetic, that’s a completely valid reason to stick with them. There’s nothing wrong with it. I myself am curating my own bookshelf, and there will always be a place for those special books.
But for convenience and ease of discovery and reading, I recommend you at least invest in one e-reader. It’s also one of the best times to buy them, as you can get good options around $100.
Since these are e-readers, you don’t even need to upgrade them as often as your phone. If you don’t accidentally break them, they can easily last 5-6 years, making them worth the investment.