Several years ago, when I first started reading e-books for leisure (as opposed to the e-books I used for academic purposes), they were a rare enough occurrence that I marked them with ‘e’ on my reading record. Gradually they have overtaken printed books in my reading material and now I’m at the point where my default format is an e-book (usually a library book from Borrowbox, or a Kindle book), simply for convenience, cost and choice. I rarely buy a printed book or borrow one from the library. For text-focused books, I’m not sentimental about formats; it’s the content I’m interested in. A book which relies on images, however, I prefer a printed copy. The thought has just occurred that my increased use of e-books coincided with my blog becoming more popular, but I think it mirrors my uptake of technology in general. I tend to be a late adopter of new tech as I don’t like to change the way I do things, but once something becomes very mainstream I’m more likely to use it. I can’t envision myself returning to printed books as my main format. When authors or publishers offer me a review copy, I usually go for the e-book, even if a printed one is on offer. Sometimes I’ll re-read one of my paperbacks but if I got rid of those and replaced them with e-copies, the experience of reading would be the same. As long as books still exist, I’ll be happy.
It’s awesome that you’ve embraced ebooks and that it has become the default format. I wonder how long it’ll be before I find myself in such a situation too hahaha
It happened quite gradually. I think if I read more visual-based books I would probably stick with printed.