Traditional vs. Digital books

"Everything you say

Is old and late"

"Undercover" - Nelly Furtado

As a task, we had to discuss about the pros and cons of traditional and digital books.

My vision's very clear: I prefer digital books. This may seem ironic, specially for the fact that I actually never got to use one but I've got my reasons to say this:

• Free books. Yes, I know piracy is illegal, but people who really like the artist are the ones who are going to pay for their art (call it book, call it album, call it movie, call it whatever), and there are very few occasions when that's me (barely Marina And The Diamonds' albums and mandatory school readers).
• One single side. Getting to read a page without another one on the side has to be simply amazing, honestly. When I read a traditional book, the only way to avoid the annoyance from the side page is folding it so it gets in the back of the book, which puts me in actual danger to break it... so it's definitely annoying whatsoever.
• Light! Reading at night, when it comes to traditional books, requires turning on a light or two, which, unless you live all alone, is probably going to annoy someone, specially when the people you live with are your parents willing for you to sleep at once. And, actually, I would say that, if there's an external light, the user is able to disable this feature. To be honest, I think Kindles don't work with light but with moving ink...

Even though, I can also think of reasons why someone could prefer traditional books in certain occasions:

• Actual library. Seeing your books in your room, right on your shelf, is a privilege only traditional literature allows. I must say, though, from my humble point of view, that then the books that mean so much to the reader get reduced to decoration. Plus, if a reader is avid enough, they could read, for example, fifteen books a year. Within eighty years, that would be one thousand and two hundred books. Is a shelf enough space for that?
• Touch, smells. I guess some people like the touch of pages or the smell of new books. That is fairly respectable, but I have to say you can also touch a Kindle. It doesn't feel the same way, and it barely smells like anything, but it is actually possible.