BestSelling authors reflect on how it feels to hold a book in your hands, and on a screen
This week, BestSelling Reads launches a series of posts that looks at how different kinds of books, paperback and electronic, make us feel. What emotions and memories surface when we pick up a book or an e-reader and see the images and words on the page or screen. To start, we present
Lucy Appadoo
Physical books evoke, for me: a taste of the old world when a multitude of bookstores remained opened, and people flocked to buy whatever took their fancy at the time, or whatever might have been publicised by Oprah or other means.
My own physical book is about holding a tangible object which I created through sweat, frustration, and tears. It’s the feel of the gloss or matte cover and the way the paper crinkles as you turn the pages. It’s about having decorative bookmarks lining the pages, and using a booklight if you want to read at night. I especially love flicking through pages to find a particular passage or chapter, which is harder to do in an ebook.
The negatives of print books are the shipping costs when you purchase them, and the weight of them if you have sore hands.
The physical book is about the strong weight of the book, which represents the time and energy it took to create those words. It’s about light, colour, and shade through the printed words, the cover, and the blurb.
The ebook, on the other hand, is light. Each page can be easily accessed. It requires less effort to turn the page, and holds a range of books within easy reach. It is instantaneous, and you don’t need to pay for delivery, with easy access to your kindle, phone, or iPad device. It is so easy to read books from international authors as you don’t need shipping costs to read their books, as you would for print books.
The negatives of ebooks are the difficulty in which to find a particular phrase. Also, it can be harder to search for something inside the book. You cannot necessarily highlight passages, either.
Generally speaking, both physical books and ebooks have their qualities and can both be enjoyed according to reader preference.
Lucy Appadoo
is a prolific reader and author of the Friends In Crisis Series. After a childhood spent reading and imagining escapist worlds, Lucy has put her imagination into stories. Her work as a rehabilitation counsellor, and former work as a counsellor in private practice, have led to an interest in writing inspirational stories about authentic, driven women who manage adversity with strength and heart. She writes in the genres of romantic suspense/thrillers with significant life themes and contemporary romance.
Lucy’s interests include researching crime stories and news to inspire her work, watching crime thrillers and suspenseful movies, travel, exercising, reading for entertainment or knowledge, meditation, and spending time with friends and family. She also appreciates her Italian background and culture, which has inspired her to write imaginative stories about her parents’ childhoods, leading to The Italian Family Series novels.
Check out Lucy’s website and sign up for a FREE suspenseful novel on her website.
Learn more about Lucy Appadoo on her
And follow her on Twitter @LucyAppadoo.
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