For the Love of Ebooks
by Gene Wilburn
I have friends who only read traditional print books. Having acquired my love of reading long before the Internet, I appreciate their preference for a physical object that has pages to turn and has that “book smell” and tactile feel. Print books have elegance and history going for them. Not to mention pride of place on your bookshelves.
And yet, I confess I prefer ebooks to print books. I like carrying entire portions of my personal library on my phone and on my tablet. I’ve been spoiled by the convenience of always having a book to read, no matter where I am, and not being limited to a single book in hand.
My first encounter with ebooks was on a Palm Pilot and later Palm PDA devices in the late 1990s, loading early ebook formats like Plucker and Mobipocket. The joy of having a book or two available in my shirt pocket was perfect for commuter train rides or waiting in my dentist’s office.
When Amazon first entered the Internet scene as an online book store, they released their first Kindle dedicated ereader in 2007, using e-ink display technology. I bought one as soon as they were available. It didn’t yet have a touchscreen. It had buttons and a hardware keyboard, à la Blackberry, but larger. It wasn’t illuminated — you had to read it under a good lamp or in daylight. It included a service called “Whispernet,” a dedicated cellular connection that enabled you to download books and newspapers without needing a Wi-Fi connection. You could buy a Kindle book online and it would download to the reader in seconds.
I loved it. Later I added a Kobo ereader. The Kobo was first developed by a Canadian company, before Rakuten of Japan acquired it. I liked it because it offered side lighting and could read EPUB format ebooks, unlike the Kindle that mainly read Kindle AWZ formatted books.
Today Kindle ereaders have caught up in features and my latest Kindle Paperwhite (2025) is not only side lit, it now also allows me to change the lighting from white to various shades of amber.
I also read ebooks on an iPad Mini using the Kindle, Kobo, and Apple Books apps, though I find the back lighting of the iPad can be tiring on my eyes. My preferred device for reading an ebook is a dedicated ebook reader, or ereader.
Advantages of Ereaders
and Ereader Apps Over Print Books
Fonts. Ereaders and ereader apps allow you to choose from a collection of different ebook fonts: Amazon Ember Bold, Baskerville, Bookerly, Caecilla, Georgia, Helvetica, OpenDyslexic, and Palatino, in the case of the Amazon Kindle. Kobo and other ereaders are similar. Bookerly was a font Amazon developed especially for ereading.
Most ereaders and apps also allow you to invert your screen at night so you see white letters against a black or dark background rather than black letters on a white background. It’s less tiring on the eyes late at night.
Size. As my eyes age I find I need the typefaces to be larger. It also varies by time of day. If I read late into the evening I often raise the font size a point or two. There’s no longer a need to seek out “large print” physical books.
Storage. Ebooks require little storage space, which means you can carry most of your elibrary around with you, either in your ereader or on your phone.
Battery life. Because dedicated ereaders using e-ink technology are not powering backlit screens, they get exceptional battery life. My Kindle Paperwhite usually lasts several weeks on a charge.
Distraction Free Reading. Dedicated ereaders, in contrast to ereader apps, are distraction-free devices. You can’t surf on them or get pinged with notifications. They’re simply for reading and note taking.
Other Benefits
WiFi Connectivity. One big change from early ereaders is that today’s models support WiFi connections, allowing you to purchase and download new books right to your device.
Goodreads Integration. For those who use or follow Goodreads for suggestions about books, the Kindle, for instance, has seamless Wi-Fi connectivity to Goodreads. You can add your ratings or write your reviews directly from the ereader. It syncs your reading progress with Goodreads as well.
Dictionaries. Ereaders and ereader apps have a built-in dictionary and you can download others, say a French-English dictionary, or an Italian-English one. Most widespread languages are supported. Being able to look up a definition by simply pressing on the word is a godsend.
Highlighting. It’s simple to highlight passages in ebook readers, and they offer a mode to examine all your highlights in a single place. Great for research. If you’re reading an ebook on a colour screen, you can also choose the colour of the highlight.
Annotations. One of the most valuable features of ebook apps and readers is the ability to add annotations to your reading, similar to the old method of writing in the margins. An onboard virtual keyboard makes typing notes simple and easy. As with highlights, there is a built-in mode to view all your annotations in one place.
You can also collect your notes and annotations in text format for use in other applications. The Kindle Paperwhite, for instance, keeps a file called “My Clippings.txt” that you can access by connecting your ereader to a computer and transferring a copy of the file. You can also email your notes and annotations to an external email address in some of the more recent models.
There are third-party apps like Clippings.io that can manage and export Kindle notes to different formats, for integration with other apps.
Ebooks on Phones and Tablets
While I have a preference for reading on a dedicated ebook reader, I don’t always have it with me. But I always have my phone or tablet, in my case an iPhone or an iPad Mini (which is a great size for ebook reading).
I’ve frequently used my iPhone to keep reading a book I’ve started on the Paperwhite while waiting in a medical office. This isn’t limited to the Kindle. Apple Books are available on Apple devices and Google Play Books are available for Android devices.
Ebooks on Computers
Most people would rather not use a laptop or desktop computer for reading ebooks, but for technical ebooks, such as How to Program in C++, it’s very convenient to have the book open in one workspace and the programming editor in another on your laptop or desktop computer.
There are a variety of third-party apps that can read standard ebooks in EPUB formats, such as Calibre.
Apple computers have the Books application built in for Apple Books. Kindle for PC is available for Windows, as is the Kobo app. Both Windows and Mac have third-party apps that can also read ebooks that have no DRM (Digital Rights Management).
Linux Computers. Linux is my preferred computer operating system, and users of Linux can use the web-based readers such as the Amazon Kindle Cloud Reader, Google Play Books, or Kobo. Apple does not have a web reader for Apple Books.
Public Library Ebooks. Public libraries have ebooks to offer, as well as print books. Many public libraries lend ebooks (and audiobooks) to library users via an app called Libby. Libby is available for phones and tablets.
I’ve read that you can download Libby library books on a Kindle ereader in the U.S. Unfortunately this option is not available in Canada, but it is available on Kobo ereaders.
Although I may be preaching to the choir, I think ebooks and ereaders (and their apps) are among the most wholesome products of the digital age.
As Stephen King said, “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” May you never tire of reading, be it print or digital! ■
