At my previous school I remember the teacher librarian saying that kids prefer books to e-books. I also prefer books but do far more reading digitally than on paper now. The main reason of course is that all the material for my teacher librarianship degree is online. But even aside from that when I am looking for a new book to read I almost always get e-books. This is due to the ease of access and immediacy of having a new book appear on my kindle app in just a minute or two. When I can get my hands on a paper book I appreciate the reading experience even more, and consider paper books to be the most appropriate before-bed reading material for fatigued eyes.

My children prefer books too. My 13-year-old daughter is a voracious reader. She always carries at least one, often very large, just-for-fun reading book around in her already over-full school backpack. She comes back from the school library with piles of books. In reference to the readings and discussion about digital literature I asked her today which she would prefer: a new recommended book downloaded onto her kindle or an older book from the school library.

As it turns out my daughter has a strong preference for books over e-books. So strong that I have not seen her read a book on her Kindle in at least two years despite the fact that she has access to almost limitless books through this device. I asked her to tell my why she prefers books. Her first reason was something I also don’t like about reading e-books: you don’t have a physical feel for where you are in the story. Yes, you can see your progress in the story and often can jump back and forth through hyperlinked chapters but this isn’t the same as turning the pages or flipping forwards and back. She also brought something up I had not thought of: books borrowed from the library often give you clues about their readers. For example you can tell if it is old or new, or how many people may have read it before by how worn it is. It is part of the personality of a book to see if the pages are dog-eared or if someone spilled something on it. E-books are sterile in comparison, without the physical signs of previous readers.

I’m interested to continue this conversation about books versus e-books with my children, and wonder how much their preferences for books can be generalized to other kids their age.