A Case For... Paper or Pixels: The Great Reading Debate

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Two sides, but only one verd ict.
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Welcome to a case for debating podcast.
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Hello, listeners, and welcome back to a case for debating podcast.
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Joining us today as a guest is Nikhil.
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Are you excited to be on the eighth episode of A Case for Nikhil?
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Definitely.
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Okay, so before we get into our debate voting result and fan mail, a case four actually hit an exciting milestone recently.
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We just hit 250 downloads.
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So thank you to our listeners who have made it so we can reach this milestone and we hope you continue to enjoy the podcast.
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So we're gonna go right into the debate voting results because we have a little bit of fan mail to cover today, also.
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So last week's episode was with Sheldon, and this episode was titled The Social Bubble: The Great Homeschooling Debate.
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So me and Sheldon debated whether homeschooling was a good alternative to normal schooling, or if normal schooling always succeeded.
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So, Nikhil, do you have a guess on who might have won that episode?
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So I think that Sheldon would have won that episode because he aligned with my opinion that homeschooling was better because of having no distractions from anyone and having a personalized class.
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So you are correct.
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We had four responses last week.
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Four people voted for team homeschooling, and one per voted for team normal schooling.
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So congratulations, Sheldon, on winning that episode.
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And we hope you come back again.
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Okay, so we do have some fan mail that we need to cover before we get into the episode.
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So this one is from Archer, and he is commenting on the standardized testing episode.
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Hello, Bryson, Henry, and Lincoln.
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I loved listening to your podcast today.
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I wish to listen to further podcast episodes regarding other topics such as standardized testing.
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Your arguments regarding why standardized testing was good, bad, or other reasons were hilarious and interesting to listen to.
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I hope to listen to further episodes of this podcast.
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Okay, thank you, Archer.
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That fan mail is now posted on our website.
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So, Nikhil, would you like to introduce what our episode is for this week?
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So this week, our episode is our the debate between paperback books and e-books.
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Yeah, so is e-reading like a Kindle better or is a traditional style book better?
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And today we had to flip a coin again because it was hard to decide.
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So Nikhil won the coin flip.
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Nikhil decided to support the side that traditional books are better.
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So I will be attempting to support the side that e-reading is better.
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This will be a little challenging, but this will be fun.
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So without further ado, let's get into it.
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Okay, Mikhail, you know how this works.
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So would you like to start off the debate with your core argument?
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So my core argument, I feel like, is that paperback books give a better reading experience overall because turning physical pages instead of electronic pages can make it feel more engaging, and readers can see how much of the book they've completed.
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Also, a physical layout helps the readers remember where information appears and not kind of look for random buttons that go back in the book.
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And they can also use bookmarks to keep track of their place, and they also the smells and all the other senses.
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It's kind of like appealing to us from paperback books.
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If you get a new book from the store, it'll usually smell very good.
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And it also allows readers to develop a personal connection with the book.
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So that's my core argument.
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Yeah, I agree with a scent, you can't really get that on an e-reader.
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But what I really wanted to touch on is that ebooks and e-readers have very massive portability, so you can just take this one thing, it's easier to pack if you travel, if you're planning to read multiple books, and it can save a lot of space in that way.
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And if you want to read multiple books, you don't need the space of multiple books.
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And another thing, you were talking about like going to a bookstore instead of having to go to a bookstore.
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I know it can be like a fun experience, but you have instant accessibility and you can just get the book immediately with an e-reader instead of having to wait a while for it to come to you or going to a library or a bookstore to see if they have it.
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So I thought that was a good point about the portability and not needing as much space.
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But the thing also, again, with accessibility and technology is that paperback books don't really need internet to work or even electricity.
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So right now, most planes, if you're trying to read on a plane, paperback books might be a better option because they don't need internet connection or any other kind of tech.
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I do agree with that, but if you plan ahead, I know you can download books on these e-beaters, you can also add bookmarks and things like you were saying earlier, and even though you can't like physically sticky note the pages, you could still add sticky notes, and also coming back to like the battery life, the battery and electricity you were talking about, there's a lot of modern e-readers can have battery life that lasts for like up to even a week.
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Like I've seen e-readers that have an insanely long battery life.
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So if you have a weekly place to charge it, electricity could become less of an issue.
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Yeah, I feel like that's a really good point to bring up.
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But again, also with paperback books, you can kind of because you know, if e-readers, you might need like a membership to something that may expire, or a membership, like if you have a Kindle, you have a membership to Amazon or Kindle Unlimited that kind of gives you books for limited time.
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With paperback books, you can lend books to friends and family without needing to share accounts or passwords or any other security credentials, and you can also build your personal library and display their favorite books on a shelf.
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Also, paperback books can also be kept as souvenirs for years.
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Yeah, I do like the idea of like buying a book and then sharing it with like family members or friends, but the thing is, you were talking about like getting a subscription.
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I know on a Kindle, there's many libraries that allow you to get an ebook from the library and also get it on your Kindle.
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And another main point I wanted to touch on is you have a lot of control and accessibility on these e-readers.
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Like if you had a visual impairment or a reading difficulty, such as like dyslexia, e-readers like a Kindle could be super helpful for you because I know you can change text size or make things bold or increase the mark margins or use things like text-to-speech features, which is super helpful if you have one of these reading disabilities.
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So that's a great point to bring up about disabilities and like readers improving like how their reading impairment or visual impairment, but also in that same area, another point I wanted to bring up is that paperback books also you don't have to look at the screen to look at paperback books, and it has less eye strain because if you read paperback books, there's like not much eye strain as you have when you're looking electronically on a screen.
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So you're kind of talking about like looking at the screen, like if you're late at night, you wouldn't really want to be looking at a screen, and I know you wouldn't want to be looking at like a computer screen, but the screens they use on the e-readers are very different than those, and there's many dark modes and things that you can turn off almost all the screen brightness and only have the text displayed, so it feels like you're not looking at like a full bright computer screen, but you can still see it like it's a book, and also with the eye strain, maybe it's late and you don't want to be reading a book with such small text, you could just increase the text size so that you could see it better, which is unavailable on a classic book.
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So, yes, that's a great point you're bringing up with like a larger text size, larger font size, and the dark modes on Kindles and e-readers like that.
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also, I feel like e-readers, like some e-readers may not have this feature, but I feel like paperback books have fewer distractions.
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Like maybe say you have an e-reader maybe on your computer or something like that, you would have notifications for maybe social media or Instagram or Facebook or maybe even an incoming call.
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if you're reading a paperback book, you wouldn't really get all that.
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And with an e-reader on your computer or phone, you may get that.
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And I feel like that's kind of distracting.
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I definitely agree with that because you wouldn't want those ebooks and distractions on a computer or a phone or something.
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I definitely do think those specific e-readers like a Kindle, not one of these like new iPad fire ones, just like the original ones that could only read books are definitely better than a classic screen.
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With these dark modes, if you're using these modern e-readers, I do think that it is comparable to a paperback book despite the smell and other sensory things that you were talking about.
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Another thing I kind of wanted to touch on is some modern e-readers have a built-in dictionaries.
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So if you don't know a word or something, you can tap on the word and it will tell you what it means.
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Rather than if you're up late at night going on your device or trying to scramble through another book to find the word, you could just see the word right on your reading device.
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Yeah.
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About that dictionary idea, paperback books.
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some of them, maybe not all of them, but I know some of them have like either footers at the bottom of the page or at the end of the book, they will have like a little glossary where you can look for words that may seem complicated or something like that.
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Yeah, I do like when books do that.
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A lot of books don't, and sometimes they don't have all the words that you might want to, but if they have all the words, then it could be helpful.
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But on the e-readers, it's nice that you can just have any word no matter if the book decides to include it or not.
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Also, going down the path of buying a book at a bookstore.
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Often when you're buying a book, you don't really know if the book is good or bad.
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Yes, you could skip the book or in a bookstore.
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Often you couldn't do this if you're buying it online.
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But when you're on an e-reader, oftentimes there's things like you can get like the first one or two chapters for free without buying the book, so you could see if the book is actually fit for you before you buy it.
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Again, kind of like if you're in a bookstore before you buy a paperback book, you can also just kind of look through it before buying it and see if you like the wording, how it's written, and that kind of stuff as well before you go to check it out.
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That was a great point in kill, and that will conclude the time for our main episode.
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After this, you should stick around with our post show, and we will be right back.
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Now on to the post show.
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Welcome to our post show.
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So today, me, Nikhil, and Henry will be discussing our dream reading setup.
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So, what different lights would you have?
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What would you do to get cozy?
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What would be the whole vibe of your space?
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So we're gonna go to Nikhil, Henry, and then I'll finish it up with my dream reading space.
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So, Nikhil, what do you think your dream reading spot would be like?
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Price doesn't matter, you're just gonna go with whatever you want.
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So, my dream reading space would be a nice comfy chair, with like nice mood lights, like maybe like a dark green to a purple kind of lighting space so that it kind of looks peaceful and like a zen kind of place.
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Also, I would like a big bookshelf next to me so I could just choose what books I would like.
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And kind of yeah, that's my dream reading space.
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Okay, would you want to add something else?
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Would you want it to be warm?
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Would you want multiple chairs so other people could come in with you?
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Honestly, yeah, because I mean like I could get my friends, I could have multiple chairs, but it's mostly gonna be the big thing is the chairs because I like to relax while I'm reading, and it's kind of like a recliner chair with all the like massage settings and stuff like that.
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Yeah, it has to be warm.
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It I mean, like it doesn't really have to be warm.
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I don't have any preference on the heat.
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Yeah, that sounds like a really cozy reading setup.
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Henry, would you like to share what your dream reading setup would be like?
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My dream reading setup would probably be like in a small cozy little nook with that would like be a library.
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There would be tons of bookshelves, and there would be a lounge chair with a reading lamp over it, and I would have tons of cabinets, cool trinkets, and it would it would probably be warm in there, and I'd like also warm lighting.
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Okay, that also sounds like a really good reading nook.
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For me, I think I would I have these, I don't even know what to call them.
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They're like essentially giant bean bags, they're called moon pods, and they're really comfortable.
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You could put them in like a lying down put the you could put them in like a lying down state, or you could put them like upright and they're really comfortable no matter wherever you're in.
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I would definitely want it to be warm in there, and I would want really warm lighting.
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I would probably want the lights to be even warmer than like 3,000 degrees, like in terms of yellowness, just to make it very cozy in there and make it nice to read.
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And like the kill, surprisingly, it was also probably a bookshelf in there for all the books that I wanted to read.
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And I would probably have like three of these immune pods.
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Not that I'd be doing much reading with other people, but that would probably make up most of my reading nook.
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Okay, Nikhil, would you like to add anything to your nook or make it crazy or follow down a very imaginative state with it?
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So I mean like I just like I mean like following Henry's response, I think again it should be cozy.
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Just a thing there.
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and I also feel like it would definitely put me in an imaginative state because of all the lighting and the coziness and like the books, it would probably most likely make me sleep or make me imagine something that's in the book.
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Okay, sounds like an amazing reading doc.
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So anyone who stuck around for the post show, thank you for listening.
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We hope you enjoyed this episode.
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Listen to the next episode next week, and don't forget to share the podcast with your friends.
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That's what helped us to get to 250 downloads, and we are excited to get to the next milestone, which will be, I believe, 500 downloads.
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Would you like to say anything before the episode ends?
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I would like to say congrats to wildcard media for reaching 250 downloads and keep watching.
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Thank you, Nikhil.
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We hope to have you on again, and we're glad you enjoyed being a guest.