Princeton Happenings

Paperbacks vs. iPads

I’m a die-hard paperback book lover. About a year ago I received an iPad as a gift (I know, very generous!) and started little by little building a library of books. After a year, I’ve compared the pros and cons of paper vs. electronic and this is what I’ve come up with.
Electronic books let you carry your entire collection of books with you, it’s easy to mark your page, if you don’t like what you’re reading, click, click and you have another book open. And, you don’t have to design every room in your house around how many bookshelves you can squeeze in.
But then,
Paperbacks are easy to tuck in a pocketbook, they don’t weigh anything, and they are a must-have for a beach vacation (you know the real juicy kind of story…murder mysteries set on Cape Cod. Oh…what kind did you think I meant?), grains of sand caught in the spine. And how would we press flowers without paperbacks?
Last night I started a score sheet; Paperback vs iPad. Picture this; you’re lying in bed, holding your book/iPad on your chest two inches from your face, then you doze off. What happens to the paperback? It slips lightly to your face and your significant-other finds you under it snoring gently. What happens to the iPad? It comes crashing down on top of your face, you bolt up, grabbing your nose checking for blood! Paperback = 1 iPad=0.