Electronic books began to
spread in Japan these days. E-books are very useful. They can be read through
portable electronic terminal. E-books have a lot of problems at present, but
they will become mainstream in the publishing industry in the future. Then, are
paper books destined to disappear? Are paper books in demand for common purposes
other than study and preservation, for example hobbies and work?
In my opinion, paper books are in demand.
There are two reasons for this. First, paper books and e-books are of the
different character. Second, young men prefer paper books to e-books.
First, as paper books and
e-books are of the different character, they have different uses. So, both are
necessary. On the one hand, the e-books is suitable to be read outside on the
train and bus, or especially when the readers kill time on the chair. Digital
book readers are portable. Even if the digital book reader contains the data of
many volumes, the weight of it doesn’t change at all. On the other hand, the paper
book is suitable to be read in bed. Many people often read books before
sleeping. The bright screen of the digital book readers disturbs our sleep.
According to SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN (cited in Sutherland, 2012 December), “Mariana Figueiro of the Lighting Research Center
at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and her team showed that two hours of iPad
use at maximum brightness was enough to suppress people's normal nighttime
release of melatonin, a key hormone in the body's clock, or circadian system.” Also because paper books are hard to
break, we can bring it to bed freely.
Second, people like paper
books better than e-books. According to Voxburner (cited in Ward, 2013
November), “62% of 16-24 year olds prefer books as physical products.” Well,
why do people like paper books? I think there are two reasons. First, men have
read paper books for a long time. People love the feel of the paper and turning
the page. The paper books have the very old history. Men are used to paper books.
E-books are terminals, not paper books. Another reason is that many people
think of paper books as collection. Collections satisfy us. We will not acquire
this satisfaction in the lists of mere
data.
Paper books will not vanish
because we need paper books apart from e-books, and we love paper books.
However people including me get fewer and fewer chances to read now because of the
Internet. The spread of e-books is the big chance to change this situation. I expect
e-books very much. I hope that books are more familiar in the future than now.
425 Words
References
Sutherland (2012,December). SCIENTIFIC
AMERICAN Bright
Screens
Could Delay Bedtime. Retrieved
from:
Ward (2013,November). Voxburner 62% of 16-24s prefer books as
physical products. Retrieved from:
