4 Good Reasons to Buy eBooks

I was telling someone about a bundle of ebooks I recently purchased for some ridiculously low price. Her response was, “Oh, that would be a good deal if they were real books.” Well, yeah, I thought, “It would be cool if I could spend $0.99 and get the latest hardcover best-seller, shipping included, delivered to my doorstep instantly. But since we don’t live in Mr. Roger’s Magical Land of Make-Believe, I guess I’ll have to settle for this inferior downloadable option.”

Actually, I’ve started to prefer ebooks to to physical copies for a variety of reasons. Don’t get me wrong, there are many things about physical books I still love. I love the smell of new books. I love the smell of old books. I love the pretentious feeling I get when I walk to my bookshelves and admire my collection. I love libraries, old bookshops, and I can spend hours in a Barnes & Noble.

But there are many reasons to gravitate to ebooks.

1. They are usually more affordable. Most ebooks are several dollars cheaper than their physical counterparts. While you do need to own a device that will display them (computer, ereader, etc.), these are commonplace anymore. As of now, over a third of Americans own a tablet. If you’re the average American, you’re reading this post right now on a computer, tablet, or phone you or your family owns.

2. They don’t take up physical space. This is a huge benefit if you are like me and running out of space to put books. Yes, because it is fun to own books, I can always force my kids to live in the damp attic while I take over their room for my library, but then Child Protective Services might pay me a visit.

3. Your library is portable. Usually when I travel, I have the annoying task of narrowing down the books I can take with me because airlines like to charge you your firstborn child for extra weight. But thanks to ebooks, I can carry hundreds of books on a small device.

4. They are much more searchable. This is, perhaps, my favorite reason for buying ebooks. I read mostly a lot of non-fiction and research-oriented books. I love being able to quickly pull up the information I’m looking for by using the search feature. This beats using an index.

I’ll probably never give up physical books. I don’t anticipate many others will either. But when you see good deal on an ebook, don’t pass it up just because you’d rather have the paperback. That’s like passing up a free download from your favorite band because you’d rather wait to pay for the CD.

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