While there is a steady choir of voices bemoaning the future of reading in the digital age, the news is not all bad. According to a 2013 poll commissioned by USA Today and Bookish, the number of e-reader owners is on the rise and a significant percentage of them say they’ve actually been reading more since getting their gadgets.
Despite bleak prophecies, print books will always have their aficionados and there is no reason to assume e-books will ever replace “traditional†books completely. However, there is a growing sense that, rather than taking anything away from the reading experience, e-book reading devices and tablets make it easier for us to get lost in a book and actually give us an incentive to read faster.
Here are 7 reasons why the future of reading might actually be brighter with 7-inch Android tablets.
1. A library on the go
Admittedly, a paperback book doesn’t weigh an awful lot, but, when you’re travelling for extended periods of time, you might need to take more than one book along, for work or for pleasure. With a 7-inch tablet, you’ve got a whole portable library, pared down to the size and weight of an average paperback.
2. Tailor-made to fit your reading personality
What is your reading personality? Are you the kind of person who obstinately plods even through the most tedious tomes or the kind who likes to “zap†between books, depending on their mood? A tablet allows you the freedom to devour one book after the next or to juggle several books at once. Furthermore, tablets created with reading in mind, like the Samsung Nook, will offer you a steady supply of personalized recommendations, to ensure you never run out of reading material.
3. Eco-friendly
If you’re a serial reader, as well as an eco-conscious person, you probably feel somewhat torn between your lust for books and guilt about the ecological footprint of the publishing industry. With a tablet, you can do all the reading and book “hoarding†you like without feeling guilty about the trees cut down to “feed†your habit.
4. A solution for lighter living
Speaking of hoarding, there comes a time when you simply run out of room for your books, especially when you’re living in a small space. Admittedly, there will always be those dog-eared books we can’t bear to part with. However, you can save some space – and nurture the joy of reading in others – by regularly donating some of your printed books to charity and opting for digital versions instead. In this way, a tablet would allow you not only to travel light, but, ultimately, to lead a lighter life, helping you declutter your home and organize your living space more efficiently.
5. Better visibility
Remember the times when we used to read under the covers with a torch, while our parents believed us to be fast asleep? With a tablet you no longer need such sneaky techniques, as it offers enhanced visibility in low light, as well as direct sunlight. This means you can go on reading until the wee hours without worrying about disturbing your bedmate.
6. An ideal tool for research
Different reading strategies apply depending on whether you read for pleasure or with a research purpose in mind. While efficiency is hardly a consideration in the case of leisure reading, it is certainly of the essence when reading to gather information. This is yet another situation in which a tablet’s reading features come in handy, allowing you to highlight and annotate certain passages and bookmark them for future use. While these techniques are merely latter-day versions of ancient reading practices, they allow us to chart our way faster and more effectively through a text.
7. The perfect lure for reluctant young readers
Even though there will never be a shortage of exquisite children’s books, it can be quite a challenge to spark kids’ interest in reading, with so many temptations about. Rather than trying to “shelter†your child from the onslaught of technology, which is already a lost battle, you can encourage them to use technology for good. Many tablets offer access to enhanced children’s books (check out Barnes & Noble’s NOOK Kids Read and Play collection, for instance), which encourage children to engage with books in a more interactive fashion. However, don’t rely on e-books alone if you want to nurture your kid’s taste for reading.
To sum up, it seems that the advent of e-book readers and tablets custom-made for reading, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook, doesn’t herald doom or a paradigm shift in the way we engage with a written text. It just provides us with the tools to read faster and more extensively in the privacy of our homes or on the move, without depriving us of the enjoyable aspect of the reading experience.
