Which Are Better: eBooks or Paper Books? It Depends...

In August I wrote a couple of posts that posed the question: which are better, eBooks or paper books? I'm not a fan of black and white answers, but in this case the answer was even more grey than usual. The fact is, there are pros and cons for both. I myself still read both paper books and eBooks, alternating between the two depending on the book.

Here were the arguments I presented for each side.

5 Ways That eBooks Are Better Than Paper Books

1. Social Highlighting
2. Notes
3. Look-up of words
4. Ability to Tweet & Facebook quotes
5. Search

5 Ways That Paper Books Are Better Than eBooks

1. Feel
2. Packaging
3. Sharing
4. Keeping
5. Second-hand books

There's little doubt that paper books will be a commercial force for a long time yet. Nevertheless, in 2010 eBooks and eReaders took a big step forward and eBooks now represent a sizable minority of the overall book market.

An interesting section of an interesting article, and the 2 "5 ways that" articles linked to are both worth reading too.