It’s probably not a secret that I love eBooks – in fact, in 2018, almost half the books I read were ebooks. But I realised that I haven’t really talked about how or why I fell in love with ebooks, so here’s my experience and thoughts on the matter.

First, my credentials & history as a paper-book lover

Growing up, I only read paper books. It’s kind of obvious, given that ebooks weren’t ubiquitous when I was a kid. Visits to the library and books gifted at birthdays and Christmas got me to value the power of the written word (my parents gave us books when we got a new sibling, which helped to ease the transition). Even now, I love paper books and buy them regularly (last purchase was three days ago).

To illustrate how much my books mean to me, here’s what happened during my time in Japan. I used one luggage to bring the books I considered most important to my stay (mostly novels that I thought would be uplifting reads). I came back last year with about four boxes of books, not including the ones I brought back the summer before. This is despite the fact that I consider Japan a ‘book desert’ because of how hard it is to find affordable English books.

How I fell in love with eBooks

I fell in love with eBooks when I moved to Japan. There aren’t many English books there and it can get pretty pricy if I were to buy all the books I read (especially given my book addiction). In Sasebo, the last place I stayed before I moved back, the two bookstores in town didn’t sell any English books. I had to go to BookOff, which is a secondhand store (the one nearest my home also sold bags, clothes, dishes, etc) before I could find two shelves of books.

With so few books available, I turned to eBooks and realised that it was incredibly convenient. I think my first year there was the year I found and started using NetGalley. And when I realised that the Singapore library board had a pretty extensive ebook selection, I realised that I didn’t need to buy books any more (although I still do because sometimes, you just want a physical copy).

The advantages of ebooks

The first one is pretty obvious – you can fit an insane number of ebooks into one device. I used to bring a few books with me but now, I don’t need to bring anything. Although I much prefer an eReader, I can use my phone to read if need be. This makes going on vacation so much easier and I have more room to buy books home as souvenirs. Which I guess defeats the point of ebooks but I really like buying books as personal reminders of trips.

Secondly, if you’re talking about library ebooks, they are so much more convenient than physical books. If I wanted to borrow a physical book from the library, I’d have to go down to my nearest branch and hope that they have the book. But because all the libraries in Singapore share one ebook ‘library’ on Overdrive, I can take out my phone and borrow books anywhere, anytime I want. Even if the actual libraries are closed. It’s a fantastic way to feed my reading addiction because now, I don’t have to wait anymore. And it’s not just about borrowing the books; I’m currently making my way through an unabridged version of The Tale of Genji and it is a doorstopper. I can’t bring it out to read, so progress is fairly slow. If I had the ebook version, I would probably be done with the book by now.

Thirdly, ebook readers are often much thinner and more portable than physical books. It may not sound like a big thing, but I recently realised just how useful this is. I had to attend a formal-ish dinner and the smallest book I had could not fit into my purse once my wallet and phone were in. The only thing I could fit was my kindle fire and you can be sure that I was happy to have it – especially since it was a 40-minute bus ride to the dinner!

Finally, if you’re talking about buying ebooks, they’re often cheaper and more widely available than their physical versions. I may be working but I’m not rich and the disposable income I have has to feed both my reading and tea habit. As much as I like paper books, ebooks tend to be a lot cheaper and easier to get, especially for older books that may no longer be sold in bookstores – Amazon and Book Depository are amazing but there’s often a wait involved, so it’s not as convenient.

Conclusion

I think ebooks are fantastic. Yeah, it may not be easy to show off your book stash with ebooks, but they have a lot of advantages and at their core, they have the same story as paper books. I still love physical books very much and will probably continue growing my library, but I can say with certainty that my reading life would be much poorer if there weren’t ebooks around.