Nothing can replace the smell of a fresh cover, the rustle of new pages, and especially the process itself when you first pick up a book from the shelf of a bookstore.

             I’m not saying that e-books are unnecessary or even harmful. On the contrary, they are practical and modern.

            An e-book is indispensable, for example, when traveling, mainly if you are limited in luggage, and it is impossible to dispute.

     Even I sometimes read from my smartphone, like all ordinary people.

            Sometimes it’s a work necessity, and sometimes it’s common sense. I appreciate it when you have the opportunity to choose from different options.

             Still, for me and many others, paper books are preferable, and this is not just a whim because reading from paper cannot be wholly equated with reading from a screen. According to The Guardian, studies have shown that information from paper books is absorbed and retained better.

            It’s time to start with the obvious: an e-book is not a book.

            “E-book” is a euphemism, a figure of speech that means text in digital form.

            Sometimes in “e-books,” there are illustrations, perhaps some additional options like the ability to make notes, and so on.

            Some manufacturers even offer a function of the rustle of pages being turned, but e-books themselves are just files.

            A paper book is a material object of our level of perception.

            We can weigh it in our hand, feel it by touch, put it in our bag.

            It has pages, a cover, a spine, a cut-off, a flyleaf-integral, obligatory parts.

            All of them can be the subject of design, enter into a special relationship with the text, supplement and expand it.

            Mentally combining these attributes, we are talking about the art of the book.

            Let us also put aside the negative spirit attached to the concept of materialism and recognize: a book is a thing.

            Like anything, it can be pleasant, friendly, comfortable, beautiful.

            Your favorite book will stay with you for a long time.

            You will read the carefully edited text more carefully, you will love it more, and at the same time, its receptacle.

            After all, you perceive a book with several senses at once, unlike digital information, which is available only through vision.

            Books you not only read with your eyes but also touch, hear, and even smell.

            You do not think about it when you read, but it gradually affects the perception of the text.

            This means that reading electronic media and reading from paper will never be completely equivalent practices.