Effects of Ebooks on Reading Fiction and Non-Fiction (Essay Sample)

Effects of Ebooks on Reading Fiction and Non-Fiction
Institution
Name
Date
Effects of Ebooks on Reading Fiction and Non-Fiction
Ten years ago, only a few expected that by the decade's end, people would be reading novels on computers and cell phones. A lot has changed in the book world today, with a dramatic decline in hardback sales turning the victory of the ebook into a defeat for paper publishing. Readers in their millions have now opted for electronic editions, rather than costly, dust-jacketed copies of the latest fiction and non-fiction titles. Ebooks seem to have won over the old-fashioned books, and as more people continue to embrace them, there will be a remarkable shift in the way people purchase and read fiction and non-fiction (Thomas, 2010).
The proliferation of new technology in the book industry likely means people will read more books in the immediate future (Blümlein, 2013). Ebooks will increase book consumption for the masses for two main reasons: It's easier to acquire them and it's much easier to have them with you at any particular moment. Ebooks can be delivered almost instantaneously within minutes, one can purchase or download and start reading, and there's no longer any excuse not to read.
Now, and in future, anyone with an e-reader, Smartphone, or tablet computer and the necessary software will be carrying the globe's biggest bookstore, with literally millions of books at their fingertips. However, this book-reading culture revolution could work out better if people purchased monochrome e-readers to encourage the reading of books. Smartphones, tablets, and other devices have multiple entertainment uses, and could easily distract avid readers.
People are spending a lot of time in front of their computers, and using some of that time to read an ebook could greatly change the literacy levels in the world today and in future. Even better, one can get ebooks about every possible subject, fiction and non-fiction today some are free, some are not. Even if on sale, ebooks are sold at a relatively lower price than printed books. Their prices are not determined by the number of pages, but by the information offered, its relevance, and its usefulness, and also by the quantity of practical knowledge, tips, motivation, and by the uniqueness of the information read (Welday, 2013).
There's the other side of the coin research in the past two decades indicates that people often comprehend and remember text on paper better than on a screen . Reading ebooks, or anything from a screen, hinders understanding by preventing readers from instinctively navigating and mentally mapping long texts. Generally, screens have been found to be more cognitively and physically demanding than paper scrolling the texts on screen demands steady, conscious effort, and the reading scre...