E-Readers versus Paper Books: a Practical Debate by Johanna Grassick

Are e-readers a better alternative than not reading at all?

Is it really ‘sad’ to see children holding tablets rather than traditional paper and glue pages?

There’s been a lot of discussion on this subject, with articles such as this one reporting the opinions of actress Hermione Norris and this one with James Daunt's (boss of Waterstones) comment that “reading digitally can't compete with the delights of the tactile feel and smell of paper”.

But opinions are subjective, so why not keep things practical? I have an e-reader, but I also read paperbacks. Here are some thoughts for and against:

1. I can’t take my e-reader in the bath

Some of you might,  but I’m very clumsy and I sometimes fall asleep reading. So my solution is to always have two books on the go – one digital and one paper (preferably tatty and used, so if it gets a dunking no one will be upset).

2. E-readers are great for reading in public places

There is the obvious thing of not wanting other people to see what I’m reading and judge me for it, but there’s also the fact that my Kindle syncs with my phone and it’s my phone that I read when waiting for the train or at the dentist.

3. It’s easy to skip back and reread sections of a physical book

Not impossible with an e-reader, I know, but I have a visual memory. I’ll half remember that a passage was near the beginning of the book or at the bottom of a page, but a ‘navigate’ function is not enough – I need to flick through until I spot the place.

4. E-books are cheaper (or free)

Especially if, like me, you follow your favourite authors on Twitter and Facebook – then you’ll be one of the first to know about promotions and special deals.

5. On holiday, no one will steal your paperback

Yes, e-readers are great for voracious readers when travelling, but I get twitchy leaving mine by the pool. It might get splashed, it might disappear... So, yet again, I’ll take a paperback. 

Plus, I regard it as advertising for my author friends when I leave their latest book on the sunlounger.

6. Paper books can be given as gifts 

This is the clincher.

This is the reason I hope paper books never go out of fashion.
Because there’s no greater pleasure when I’ve read a really good one, than to share it with others. For Christmas and birthdays I want to be able to buy a bundle of books and give them away as presents, in the hope that the intriguing characters or gripping plot or beautiful descriptions will bring my family and friends as much pleasure as they’ve given me.

Which books have I given away recently? Well, obviously each is tailored to what I think the recipient will enjoy, but my most popular choices recently have been:

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Dear Thing by Julie Cohen

Have you given away any books recently? Or received them?
If so, which? I’d love to know...

Why Pixel is a Four-Letter Word by Louise Marley

When I first decided to self-publish it didn’t actually occur to me I’d have to do everything myself. I soon found out that while I owned the rights to my traditionally published books, I didn’t own the original cover art. I would have to produce my own. I might have a GCSE in art, but there is a reason my entire house is painted in magnolia and that I only ever wear black. But, you know, whatever! How hard can it be to design a book cover?

I soon found out.

The part that took the longest was sourcing the illustrations. The girl on the cover had to look something like my heroine, but not be too cute and certainly not too slutty! She had to appear friendly, but also as though she’s up to no good.

This was my first attempt for Why Do Fools Fall in Love. The original illustration cost me £30. It was on a white background, which was fine, but Amazon stated that any white cover had to have a black border around it, and at that stage I hadn’t a clue how to fix that. I decided to change the background to pale blue which, with hindsight, looks terribly wishy-washy.

A year later and I wanted my covers to appear more similar, like a ‘brand’. I therefore redesigned Why Do Fools Fall in Love and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes to match A Girl’s Best Friend.
 

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes was simple. I took three illustrations - a man, a woman and some smoke (see what I did there?) and set them against a black background.

Why Do Fools Fall in Love proved more difficult. I bought a new background illustration because I liked the trees with the fairy lights, but when I added the hero and heroine it looked too ‘busy’. It also had the Eiffel tower in it and my book is set in Bath! So I stripped everything away until I was left with the trees - and then I put back the fence because it looked too bare. And the fence did have little hearts on it, which went with the title. Coloured jeans were in fashion, so I changed my heroine’s to yellow, which I also hoped would make the cover look less Christmassy. One of the tricks I’d picked up since my first effort was to use as few colours as possible, so my hero got a makeover too and ended up in urban black and grey.

 

I experimented with different background colours and decided on a rather classy dark blue to resemble the evening sky. Unfortunately, once the cover had gone through two software programs the dark-blue turned purple! My computer then crashed three times over the course of a weekend, losing all my work. It was coming up to Christmas and I had a mass of deadlines, so in the end I just muttered something that didn’t sound remotely like ‘whatever’ and hit ‘publish’.

I’ve now designed the covers for most of my books. I could admit it’s because I’m a complete control freak, but do you know what? Despite all the cursing and complaining I actually enjoy doing it!

 

 





 

 

 

Book Jacket Photos: Louise Marley

Illustrations: iStockphoto