Books

Poll 10 people by posing the question “Read any good books lately?” How many have they read in the past 6 months? What types of books have they read? What does this tell you about your sample and society?
Which would you prefer to use in your college classes, regular textbooks or electronic textbooks? Why? Which would you prefer for your leisure reading? Why?

Out of the 10 people I polled, 7 of them had read books for leisure in the last 6 months. The books they read were wide in variety most being best sellers but ranging in genera. Almost everyone reported reading paperback books though. The book categories all fell into fiction, non-fiction, and religious book. The fact that 70% of the people I asked had read books shows that book readers are in the majority (at least on a college campus) and I found it interesting that people mostly read popular books like the Twilight series. A lot of people claimed they read those books because they felt that since it seemed like everyone else was reading them it was important to read them as well.

Right now I would rather read regular textbooks for my college classes. Whenever I have electronic reading assignments it always takes me a lot longer to finish them. It takes a lot longer and is more strenuous for me to read on a computer screen. Plus, I typically like to read with a pen in my hand and all that writing on the screen makes a mess.

But in all seriousness, I have not had much of a chance to use the new e-book electronic readers that supposedly are very easy to read and can store hundreds of books. You can also take notes on those, but still, there is something to be said for being able to leaf through pages.

During pleasure reading it is even more important that I can have a traditional book than an electronic one. Again I have never really used one of those fancy reader gadgets but i like something i can hold and beat up. Take with me on a plane and not worry about loosing it or worry about spilling food on it as much. So all in all, I think that I still prefer books. Though I am open to letting some new gadget change my mind if it can.