‘Tis the season for reading — both print and e-books. But can the two really coexist?
For this video report (below), I checked in with three bookstores in Chapel Hill and Durham, N.C., and asked store managers and customers whether they preferred print or e-books.
Some of their answers were expected, such as people’s love of the smell of print books, and how they enjoyed having a break from staring into a screen. E-book users praised their devices for their portability, and enjoyed being able to carry multiple books with them without being weighed down.
What interested me most, though, were people who used both print and e-books. One person I spoke with said he would often have the same book on both formats, a print version for inside his home, and a digital version for when he was on the go. Other print book lovers praised e-readers for bringing back digital copies of hard-to-find and out-of-print books.
“Information is information,” said Tom Minor, a retired librarian, suggesting that e-books have more people reading, and reading more.
Joshua Davis is a multimedia journalist and documentary videomaker. His work has been honored in the FotoweekDC Awards, the College Photographer of the Year Awards, and North Carolina Photographer of the Year competition. Joshua recently earned his master’s degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and previously worked as an editor on projects for RollingStone.com, PBS Frontline, Arte and the Travel Channel. He has served as adjunct faculty at New York University, coached the 2012 Carolina Photojournalism Workshop and taught courses as an Apple Certified Final Cut Pro editing instructor. In his free time, Joshua enjoys traveling and practicing Spanish. Follow him on Twitter @joshabla and see his portfolio of work here.