Feature Follow Friday: Paper vs EBook (AKA, the FF where I just repost something I already wrote)

Every Friday Parajunkee and Alison Can Read hosts Feature Follow Friday. It's a great way to get to know the blogging community and they ask fun questions!

This week's Question is:

Hard print (real thing) or Kindle/Nook, which is your favorite?

So...I already wrote a post about this. So I will just quote myself for the rest of this post. If you want to read my original post go here (I reference a pretty cool study about how e-readers ain't no thang aka are harder to emotionally connect to compared to hard print books).

To be honest, I buy most books on my e-reader now because I live in the city and it's easier to carry around my tablet/phone to read than a million books. Also, I read about four books at a time so I like to have them all handy because I'll never know which one I'm in the mood to read.

However, studies have now been done on whether we should read from an e-reader or a hard copy paper book.

And the winner is: Paper Books!

The study was done by Anne Mangen at the University of Stavanger. Apparently e-readers make us less able to absorb information and readers can't remember the order of events in their stories.

According to Mangen, studies suggest that using screen devices (like iPads, kindles, nooks) might impact readers' cognitive abilities and it affects the emotional aspect of reading. What does all this mean you ask. It means that e-readers are turning us into emotionless zombie readers! (noooo) J/K it's not that serious, but it could mean that we aren't connecting to our stories in an emotional way and we're not processing story details well since we're reading it on e-readers. 

Why is this happening? Apparently we need to be able to feel the pages and physically turn them, having the option to flip back and forth, fold over pages (blasphemy!), and have a tactile experience of feeling the pages during reading helps steep us in the experience of reading.
I personally have always said that the smell of books is a huge part of reading, so I can see what this study is getting at. I just didn't know that the feel of books could make me empathize with the characters more.

(Not-Monday) Musings: e-readers vs. paper books

I know it's not Monday, but not enough people read/care about my personal memes to make a stink about me writing this on a Thursday. Also, I read a cool article that I MUST share with you all!

I wrote a previous Monday Musing about audio books (summary: I'm not a fan of fiction on audio). However, I never really spent too much time worrying about whether to read my fiction on paper or on an e-reader.

To be honest, I buy most books on my e-reader now because I live in the city and it's easier to carry around my tablet/phone to read than a million books. Also, I read about four books at a time so I like to have them all handy because I'll never know which one I'm in the mood to read.

Also, at the end of reading a really good book on my e-reader I'll sometimes even buy it in hard copy so I can add it to my ever growing library (and my dream is to one day have a library in my home).

However, studies have now been done on whether we should read from an e-reader or a hard copy paper book. 

And the winner is: Paper Books!

The study was done by Anne Mangen at the University of Stavanger. Apparently e-readers make us less able to absorb information and readers can't remember the order of events in their stories.

According to Mangen, studies suggest that using screen devices (like iPads, kindles, nooks) might impact readers' cognitive abilities and it affects the emotional aspect of reading. What does all this mean you ask. It means that e-readers are turning us into emotionless zombie readers! (noooo) J/K it's not that serious, but it could mean that we aren't connecting to our stories in an emotional way and we're not processing story details well since we're reading it on e-readers.

Why is this happening? Apparently we need to be able to feel the pages and physically turn them, having the option to flip back and forth, fold over pages (blasphemy!), and have a tactile experience of feeling the pages during reading helps steep us in the experience of reading.

I personally have always said that the smell of books is a huge part of reading, so I can see what this study is getting at. I just didn't know that the feel of books could make me empathize with the characters more.

What do you guys think? How do you read your books? Do you think e-readers are making readers lose out on the experience of reading?

Monday Musings: Nook partnered with Samsung!

A new blog means that I am going to start some new features. The first I'm rolling out are my Monday Musings. Mostly random thoughts about reading, writing (and awesomeness).

My first post is about the partnership between Barnes and Noble's Nook and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4.

For some background info, Barnes and Noble was not as successful as they wanted to be with their Nook (first launched in 2009). Kindle was killing the eReader market and the Nook wasn't gaining as much of a fan following. So they scaled back a little in 2013. It looked like they were probably preparing to throw in the towel. But then in comes Samsung (Koreans for the win, woot!).

They released the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook tablet, a 7" tablet running on Android 4.4 OS.

I think Barnes and Noble made a smart move. They are not a gadget company, they're a book company. So while it always made sense to me that they would have an eReader, it didn't surprise me that they stumbled a little. They've partnered with Samsung, a company known for fighting against tech Goliaths and holding their own (see iPhone versus Samsung Galaxy S smartphones). I think this is really smart because B&N can go back to doing what they do best, books. And Samsung can take care of the hardware/tech part of this new eReader. Plus the Samsung Galaxy Tab is proven already, so it is not much of a stretch for people to pick up the new Nook and use it as easily as people already use the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Now, I do most of my eReading through my kindle app on my iPad mini. So, I am as far away from the Nook as I can be. However, I can appreciate the desire to shake things up, and I do love my Samsung Galaxy S4 phone. So I am cautiously optimistic that this little tablet will be an awesome eReader (if only because I don't like there only being one go-to device on the market).

What about you guys, are you interested in buying the new Galaxy Tab Nook? Or are you sticking with your tried and true eReaders?