Are eBooks better than traditional books?

For centuries people have been reading paper based books - since way back when the Egyptians began using papyrus. As a material, paper has lasted well, and remained as popular as ever, whilst all around ‘goes digital'.

Books did hold the advantage over modern technology like computers, mainly due to their portability and convenience. Even if you have a laptop, you probably don't really want to take it to bed to read a book. Its much bigger, heavier, and will only ever tire your eyes out even more. Not what you need when you're finishing off a few chapters before sleep!

However, all of that is changing, and in recent years the traditional paperback has had some digital competition. Much of this is down to the creation of a revolutionary display, that can be read in much the same way as paper. Its called e-Ink, and is quite different to traditional books. There's no doubt complicated science behind it, but it literally is like ink on paper. As a result, its much easier on the eye than LCD. It can be read for long periods of time, without having the tiring effect of reading a computer screen.

In turn, this has led to extremely portable, dedicated ereader devices taking advantage of e-Ink technology. For the first time, a digital alternative to traditional books was on the market.

Another great advantage with eReaders is that they can store literally thousands of titles on them. In much the same way that MP3 players allowed music lovers to carry their whole music collection with them, ereaders now allow book lovers to easily carry their whole collection with them. No more having to decide which books to pack in the suitcase!

As if that wasn't enough, due to copyright laws, hundreds of older titles, including many literary classics, are available to download for free. So it's a great opportunity to read those classics you knew you should at some point, but never wanted to buy them all.

In conclusion, I think its fair to say that although the experience of reading regular books may remain a good one, there are undoubted benefits from dedicated ereaders that should appeal to a wide audience, and not just those interested in technology and gadgets.

One of the best ereaders on the market is the Hanlin ereader, available from Pixelar ereaders.