In an effort to carry on the long honored tradition of ladling guilt upon the younger generation, I love to tell my girls about how easy they have it. (Especially after innocent comments in their youth asking me how excited I was about women being allowed to vote —and if it was hard coming across the ocean in that boat with George Washington.) So when this week’s Marketing For Romance Writers (MFRW) Blog Challenge was simply Paperback, Ebook or Audio? I thought, back in my day I could only get a book at the library by using one of those horrible card catalogs.
Plus I had to wait what seemed like a million years for the next book in a series. Ahh…how times have changed. Now there are a multitude of methods to get my book fix in and I can have immediate gratification with the next book the moment I finish one. But how does one choose a preference?
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Audiobooks are all the rage. At least that’s what I’ve heard. (yep, I couldn’t resist). Many of my friends swear by audiobooks, and perhaps I would as well if I had a long car ride and wanted to escape traffic with a good book. Otherwise, audiobook format is my least favorite. Mostly because the voice of the narrator never quite meets the one in my imagination for the story. But perhaps I just haven’t listened to the right book yet.
I Spy With My eBook and Eye
Spoiler alert-#paperbacks are my favorite, so why am I singing the praises of eBooks? #MFRW Share on XÂ
When it comes to convenience and the ease of reading, eBooks are the winner. Initially when eBooks were popping up everywhere I refused to convert. That is, until I discovered that the kindle had a backlit screen.
I often read at night or when the family is watching television. So, back in the day, I had one of those crappy little reading lights that never quite stayed in place for my book. It was usually either too bright, or too dim, or reflected at an awkward angle so you looked like you were starring in a horror movie. (Not a good thing when you’re reading the likes of Stephen King or Dean Koontz).
The Game Changer for BooksÂ
Then I got my Kindle Paperwhite and it was a game changer. Besides 
being able to carry a plethora of books in a teeny, tiny tablet, I could read during the midnight hours and not wake up the hubs, or while the family watched television without turning a light to read. Plus the bonus of being able to make the font as big or small as I want— awesome-sauce! But despite these little joys—I will never lose my love for old-fashioned, read paperback books.
The Magic Touch
As a reader, and an author, there’s very little I love more than getting my hands on a treasured book. Whether it’s the newest release by my favorite author, or my own book, the feel of the cover in my hands 
brings indescribable joy. That’s why I often buy both a paperback, and an ebook, if it’s a story or an author that I love. That way I have the beautiful book to hold in my hands, but I can binge upon it at all hours with an illuminating eBook.
What’s That Smell?
Ahh…when you crack open a brand, spanking new book and you can almost smell the ink (I know, weird. That’s okay because I’m a writer so a little oddness is expected, right 😉 Or when you walk into the library, or a bookstore, and you’re surrounded by rows upon rows of books. I don’t know if it’s the covers, the pages filling them, or just the scent of the stories leaking out, but it’s soothing and magical to me.
Hungry for More Books?
We’ve covered all the senses, you can even say I kind of touched on the sixth sense since I can never resist shoving in some magic. Everything, except taste.
Granted sometimes an author describes a scene so well that I could say I can almost taste it, but even when I’m raging with deprivation from dieting I’ve yet to succumb to taking a bite out of a book. I couldn’t. That would ruin a perfectly good story.
What About You? Do You Prefer Paperback, Ebook or Audio Books?
Follow the #MFRW Blog Hop and Discover the Other Authors Preferences for Book Format
I love that you buy a print copy and electronic copy of favorite books. I do the same thing! Also, just between you and me, the people who don’t love the smell of books are the odd ones, right?
I’m comforted in reading some of the other author posts in that it’s not just me that loves the ‘smell’ of books. Love my writer peeps!
I said the same thing in my post about how you can smell the ink in a paperback. It’s definitely not odd that we can smell it, lol. And, I got a Kindle Fire just so I could read at night because the little light kept falling off my version 2 Kindle. 🙂
I love how it lights up the screen! It makes nighttime reading so much easier.
hahaha your kids. Gotta love when they go the extreme on age like that.
I remember the days of the card catalog. Or worse knowing there was a book you wanted to read only to find it was checked out and you had to wait for it to be returned! The horrors. Now you can one click like crazy and I do even knowing I’ll probably never read them all.
Meka waiting for a book I really wanted to read drove me crazy! I, too, have a ton downloaded to read, it’s kind of like a security blanket for me so I never run out of books. Probably a result of the ‘trauma’ as a child in waiting for them, lol.
I love that image of the scent of the stories leaking out. Imagine if romance, horror, mystery, and westerns all had different scents and we could just let our noses lead us to our favorite genre!
For people of my generation, books will always have a special appeal that e-books haven’t quite topped. I was happier with them after I replaced my Kobo with a Kindle paperwhite — which was a kind of heresy, as my daughter in law works for the people who make the Kobo. The backlit screen makes all the difference for me.
thanks for the memory of going to the library. While growing up the only bought books were special occasions such as birthdays or a box lot at a rural auction. The number one source of reading was the county library 12 miles away.