Ebooks Vs. Paper Books: The Pros and Cons
電子書與紙本書：優點與缺點
What Makes a Book?
什麼東西才是書？
電子書的考題在這幾年的雅思作文考試中屢見不鮮！同學們不妨看看這篇文章，了解一下紙本書跟電子書各自的優缺點。不管是寫作文或跟外國人討論電子書，你們都可以在這篇文章找到一些有趣的梗。我有空再來翻譯喔。
PS. 我把這個網站的文字copy到Word上，然後辛辛苦苦的花了時間編排它，加上一個個的bullet point（因為不知為何copy過來時那些格式都不見了！！）想不到我要把排好的文章貼到這個網站上，它卻完全又走樣了！！！為什麼這些網站都對文字這麼不友善？？所以請大家連到出處去看比較容易。
還有，這篇文章的口氣算是casual的，所以文中用到很多縮寫體，也不斷用到you這個代名詞。切記，學術寫作是不太喜歡you的，所以千萬不要把這篇文章的句子原封不動的超到你的雅思作文中！好歹也要把you換成(modern) people或是one或是an individual can read ebooks .......(後面自己接）。
原文出處 Source: HubPages
What
Makes a Book?
In essence,
the two formats are very similar. Both allow you to do the most important thing
- read a book. The text is the important thing, not the medium. Reading
Sumerian legends on clay tablets can feel more "authentic", but
doesn't necessarily enhance your understanding of the subject matter - just
your experience.
Depending on
the type of material you'd like to read / look at, however, one does have
advantages over the other.
The
"Classic" Paper Book.
Paper books offer multiple
advantages:
* They're easily obtainable (Bookstores are
everywhere).
* They're
easily portable.
* They
don't normally cause significant eye-strain.
* They're
cheap.
Okay, that much was obvious.
Specifically, some types of content paper books are better for are:
* Textbooks (or
any books which are generally large-format).
* Picture / Photo
books
Another factor to bear in mind is
that paper books don't need power to function. They can be read anywhere with
sufficient light, and are perfect travelling companions for exactly this
reason.
The obvious cons are:
* Paper books are bulky and heavy. Carrying more
than 2-3 around can become a chore.
* You need a light source to read
them - another thing that you'll probably carry around.
* If you make notes in them,
those notes are there to stay (Yes, even pencil. You can always see the
imprints, even if you erase every last shred of graphite).
The eBook
EBooks offer the
following obvious advantages (assuming you have an ebook reader):
* They're
easily readable. Most readers offer zoom functions, letter resizing, and so
forth.
* They're
easily portable. You can carry multiple books on one device.
* They're
much more environmentally friendly. You don't have to kill a few trees for each
book, and let's not even talk about the ink. Recycling only goes so far.
* Note-taking
is much more powerful, and the notes you write can be found and referenced
quickly and easily. And they don't have to be permanent.
* Lighting
conditions essentially become meaningless. Many readers incorporate display
lighting allowing you to read whenever and wherever you like.
EBooks are useless without a
reader. There are a few on the market, such as Amazon's Kindle, Jinke's Hanlin
reader series, Sony's eReader series, and a few others. These are mentioned
because they incorporate a technology called e-ink, which resembles paper very
closely, and eliminates most eye-strain issues.
Some types of books especially
suited for a reader are:
* Novels or non-fiction books without many
pictures.
* Web-sites with html links and cross references.
The disadvantages of ebooks
generally stem from the hardware you're reading them on. If it's a computer, you've
got the normal computer problems which detract from your reading pleasure:
* Eye strain and RSI. Long periods spent
in front of a computer are healthy for nobody.
* Power. Your average laptop has 4-6 hours of battery life.
* Portability. Why lug a laptop around if you can simply carry a book?
The cons of the reader devices
are a little more subtle:
* You
still have battery life to worry about.
* Nasty
software bugs in the reader can cause it to freeze up.
* They're
not very robust. If you spill <insert beverage of choice> on them,
chances are that's the end of your reader. Not to mention scratches, dropping
them, and so on.
In general, ebooks
suffer from other cons as well:
* They're not readily available, and format wars are making the decision
to buy a reader very difficult. Will you go for the Amazon one, and buy books
(only) there? Or the Sony.
* The pricing model hasn't been worked out yet, causing some
major discrepancies.
So
What Do I Use?
Personally, I mix and match. I
have an old Palm pilot and an ipod touch, and read novels, websites, blogs, and
so forth on that. The selection of novels isn't very broad, but as I read
public domain books most of the time, this doesn't really matter as I can
simply download them.
Paper books are still my favorite
though. They don't need batteries, and I can read them just about anywhere.
Time will tell whether ebooks are
a viable alternative. At the moment, the whole thing is still in it's infancy,
and a decent solution has yet to appear.
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