E-Readers make reading easy.

by Tracey Wilson
(Bangor, Northern Ireland)

There are people in the world who don't hold with e-readers like Amazon's Kindle or iBooks on the iPad or iPhone, not to mention all the other readers and apps out there. Some have a sentimental attachment to the smell of their books, the feel of the paper or the aesthetics of shelves full of leather bound tomes while others are just resistant to the new technology. Personally, I think e-readers, tablets (iPad, Android, Blackberry etc) and smartphones are not just the reading format of the future but may even be better for the environment! Just think of all those books that aren’t being printed and all those trees that aren’t being cut down. If an average size tree can be turned into approximately eight thousand pages and if an average book has 150 pieces of paper, double sided printing don’t forget, then each tree will make about 50 books and if a Kindle can hold up to 1500 books that’s 30 trees saved. Now I know there will be some who say but what about the environmental impact of producing the e-reader in the first place. What effects will the chemicals used and the toxic waste created have on the environment. Not to mention the fossil fuels being used to generate the electricity to keep it charged and now that the publishing industry is using more and more recycled paper e-readers may not be as environmentally friendly as they appear. To those people I say, you may have a point, but still how much better do I look carrying around one small device containing all my reading material, work documents, etc versus the man or woman with the huge briefcase full of paper and shelves and shelves of more paper in their office. All of mine will fit in a drawer, a small drawer at that.

Oh and one more thing, for those of you that want to have the old fashioned smell of books and still have an e-reader why not check out - http://smellofbooks.com/