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Writing Challenge

Mind the Gap

Our blogs are platforms from which we share our experiences, opinions, and views with the online world. For Mind the…

Our blogs are platforms from which we share our experiences, opinions, and views with the online world. For Mind the Gap challenges, we want to hear what you think about a divisive issue. Each challenge will include a poll where you can cast your vote along with your fellow Daily Post participants. After you vote, tell us more about how you feel by expanding on the topic in a blog post. Be sure to visit other participants’ posts to get some healthy discussion going.

To participate, tag your posts with DPchallenge and leave a link to your post in the comments. Please be sure your post has been specifically written in response to this challenge; obvious attempts to link-bait will be deleted. We’ll keep an eye on the tag and highlight some of our favorites on Freshly Pressed each Friday.

We bloggers are lovers of the written word. As people who read and write online, we are also part of the digital shift in how we consume writing, be it journalism, literature, poetry, or memoirs. As the mode of publishing changes, so do our interactions with what we’re reading.

Not too long ago, ebook sales trumped those of hardcovers for the first time. While the ease of digital books can’t be beat — how else can you hold hundreds of books in your hand so easily? — the physical sensation is undeniably different than cracking open a new paperback.

Around WordPress.com, other bloggers have been talking about ebooks versus hardcovers. Writing My Next Chapter is making the jump to using all ebooks in place of traditional textbooks for the semester, and though Steve of Imagineer-ing has made the switch to an eReader, letting go of hardcovers is a difficult task. While bookshelves display our favorite works of literature like art, wouldn’t the ultimate bibliophile love the ease of carrying hundreds of books in a teensy mobile device?

This week’s Mind the Gap: How do you prefer to read, with an eReader like a Kindle or Nook, or with an old school paperback in hand? Take the poll (below) and then explain your opinion by blogging about it on your site. Tag your post “DPchallenge,” so that we can be sure to find your contribution to the challenge.

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  3. Despite the convenience of e-books, nothing beats reading print on paper. To be more precise, second hand books. They are easy on the pockets, and the notes, coffee/chocolate stains, quotes that are jotted, the dog-eared pages, it gives me an additional dimension to the book. While reading the book, other than wondering what the author may have been going through while writing a certain part, for a second, I’d also like to think what the reader must have thought of a certain part! Make sense?

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  17. I love both, but what can compare with the memory of opening my very first book that I recall reading (ok it was Winnie the Pooh!), the intoxicating smell of the paper, seeing the words unfold, not knowing where they would go, the sheer delight of knowing I was setting off on an adventure…. and then, over time, the book becomes old, crumpled… a friend…..

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  26. It seems, the majority of the WordPress bloggers would go with the classical book. Every contribution to the challenge so far, sentimentally describes how superior a real book is. But in my opinion most arguments equally apply to digital books either. I did start to comment on those posts, but most things I have to say, apply to most of them equally. Some examples:

    Waiting – you have to wait for an author finishing his book regardless of the medium.
    Cover art – digital books do have the same cover art.
    Diving into the story – I have no idea how this can be real book exclusive.
    Smell – digital books don’t smell per se, but electronic devices do.
    Touch – ebook reader are also tangible

    What is the difference of starring into a book and starring onto a Kindle?

    I have never thought about being progressive … but obviously I am.

    Save trees, go digital!

    Those who argue that you can not lend an ebook or buy used ones have some valid point, but I guess the former will sort out in the future. There are even know some publishers giving you DRM free books, you actually could lend. Regarding the latter, ebooks don’t age, so I guess buying used books is impossible. But what about used e-readers?

    Fun aside, I think in the future ebooks will become so much cheaper that most of us don’t even think about used books anymore.

    Brick and mortar bookstores are doomed and should themselves go online and provide some audience targeted meta-service. Collecting, filtering and reviewing good books out of the mass targeted to their chosen audience.

    Bookshelves are nice and I feel deeply attracted by really crowded ones, but I guess they will become less and less common. I wonder what I will do with all the free space.

    Look some comments higher for my pro-digital contribution to the challenge.

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107 Responses While this challenge is closed to new entries, we encourage you to visit the Reader to find other avid bloggers.