How do you eat yours? Admittedly, that opening question doesn’t make much sense unless you’re crazy, a chocolate lover or a crazy chocolate lover. I’m definitely the latter.

For those of you who are still thinking “What is this guy talking about?!” let me explain. I’m referring to the Cadbury’s Creme Egg advertising that asks the question “How do you eat yours?” But what does this have to do with the title? Simple, which do you prefer E books or Printed books?

Ask any successful person how they became successful and they’ll list reading educational/self improvement books one of their top disciplines to do daily. But in what format should you be reading, printed or electronic?

Printed Books

It seems like printed books have been around since time began. Always there, giving us the opportunity to learn the wisdom of the world.

But with the development of E books should printed books still have a place on your shelf?

In my opinion, Yes absolutely! You can use printed books in a way that E books can’t be used. One of things I love about printed books is you can write your thoughts and ideas on them.  Jim Rohn beautiful explains the importance of new ideas with this quote;

Idea’s can be life changing. Sometimes, all you need to open the door is one more good idea.

You can write the good ideas you get from printed books next to the content. So when you look back through, straight away you’ll know which bit of text inspired you to write those words. Now you can make notes on an E reader but not with pen and ink, which is the most powerful way to make notes.

Another opportunity you have with printed books over it’s electronic brother, is you can share them. If you find a book that touches you, that gives you that one good idea, that brings you out of the darkness and into the light, you can give that book to someone with the hope that it at least does the same for them that it did for you. And if you don’t have anyone to give it to, you can give the book to a charity shop.

How would you like your books for free? The wisdom of the world is available for free at your local library. All you need is a library card and the desire to get there no matter what. It doesn’t get much easier than free!

E Books

E books and E readers have been around for a minuscule amount of time compared to its printed sister but that’s doesn’t take away from the value they can bring to your life.

The beauty of E books is you can store 100’s and 1000’s all in one E reader that is no bigger than your average book. You can have books on communication, history, art, leadership skills, financial accounting with you, where ever you go. All the skills you need, all the ideas you need all in one place.

If a friend recommends a book, how does having it in less than a minute sound? Sounds great to me too! With E readers waiting for book to be dispatched and delivered is a thing of the past. All it takes is a quick search, pay then download and you’re ready to read. Most E books can be sampled before you buy which means you can download the first chapter or so for FREE to see if the book is for you.

If you’re going to read your E books on the go you’ll need an E reader. There are some all singing all dancing E readers which allow you to play music and videos etc but I prefer a pure, just for books, E reader. This way when I pick up my E reader there are no distractions and I can fully focus on reading and studying my book. My E reader is a Kindle Paperwhite. It’s simple, it’s effective and it does everything I want.

What’s the verdict?

My belief is both E books and printed books should have a place in your library. They are both unique resources which you can use to become the person you need to become in order to achieve your goals.

I use my Kindle Paperwhite more than printed books. If a take a lot of value from an E book I’ll buy it’s printed version and reread it so I can write notes on the pages. Which is similar to what Snape does with his potions book in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

I hope you’ve at least taken 3 points of value from reading my post and you’ve journalled them. If you’re not sure on the importance of journalling or how I journal take a look here.

Thanks again for investing your time and I’ll be back soon!

Joe