Both paper books and e-books are beneficial for open reading

Reading Tips

Reading not only broadens horizons, but also carries memories. When reading, people can enjoy moments of solitude and engage in solitary practice, as well as make friends through books and make like-minded companions. The author of this article talks about the precious time of reading paper books and e-books, and discusses the reading experience with readers.

Hu Shiyang

The tactile sensation of flipping through pages one by one is an irreplaceable aspect of paper books

In the current era of rapid technological advancement, e-books have gradually replaced paper books and become the new reading trend. People are accustomed to reading e-books on WeChat Reading, checking in and writing book reviews on Douban, or recommending new and good books on Xiaohongshu. But while enjoying a smooth reading experience on electronic screens, I also think that screens can provide a vast virtual world and block out some of our original views. I remember when I didn't have my own smartphone, I used to be able to focus on reading paper books or magazines alone, and that time was jokingly named 'My Classical Era'. The difference in experience between reading paper books and reading e-books is significant, but I believe that regardless of the medium used for reading, any open book reading is beneficial.

Most of the Oriental newsstands in Shanghai have now been demolished, but every time I return to Shanghai, I can still recall the appearance of the red umbrella shaped pavilion. Before going to college, I lived in Shanghai all along. At that time, after school every Friday, I would hold a few coins in my hand and stroll greedily at the entrance of the newsstand, staring at magazine covers such as "Reader", "Yilin" or "Sprout". My pocket money is only enough to buy one literary magazine, so I can only rub the cover of the magazine repeatedly with my fingers, hesitate for a moment, and then buy one of them. My mother is also a frequent visitor to the newsstand, and her study has stored many of the "Harvest" and "Novel Monthly" that she subscribed to back then. At home, there is always a literary magazine placed on the bedside of the bedroom and the windowsill of the bathroom, so I picked up a certain issue of "Harvest" and started reading the novella on it. Every page of the magazine left traces of my fingers flipping through, and the feeling of flipping through pages one by one was an experience that reading e-books had never had before.

On weekend afternoons, there are often many people in Xinhua Bookstore, Xixifu Bookstore, or Yanjiyou Bookstore who order a cup of coffee or drink, sit for an afternoon, and then read a paper book in the rich aroma of coffee. New concept bookstores have emerged in recent years. The design of half coffee shops and half bookstores has given physical bookstores a living space in the Internet era. Once I was standing in a bookstore flipping through books and happened to pick up a representative work by Duras from the foreign literature bookshelf. I originally just wanted to flip through it casually, but unexpectedly I read it in one breath. Fragmented poetic words surged like seawater, and the opening sentence "I'm already old" couldn't be forgotten in my mind. However, the image that appeared before me was always the protagonist's teenage years. After reading, the dizziness lasted for a while, and then I realized that I had been lost in thought for too long. My legs had been standing, feeling a bit sore and swollen, and I had forgotten to find a seat to sit down and read slowl.

I think the reason why the time of reading paper books in the past is unforgettable in the human brain is mainly because there are some things that e-books cannot replace, such as the tactile sensation of flipping through pages one by one, and the "physical feeling" of fingers rubbing against rough paper, which makes people feel incredibly grounded. This is more realistic and tangible than the reading progress displayed in the upper right corner of an e-book.

Meet friends through books on e-books and enjoy the convenience of the information age

The statistics from WeChat Reading show that I have read over 200 hours of e-books and made more than 500 reading notes in the past year. Seeing these statistics, I think this is probably a unique convenience of the information age.

To a certain extent, e-book reading apps represented by WeChat Reading have also liberated reading spaces, allowing people to start reading anytime on their phones in bed, on the subway, or while waiting in line.

Flaubert's novel "Madame Bovary" is the book that I have left the most notes on WeChat Reading, and it is also one of the books that I have exchanged the most with unfamiliar netizens. I wrote on WeChat Reading that Madame Bovary is essentially a female version of Don Quixote, and added the following annotation: "The narrator has long hinted that Rudolf is not Emma's ideal type, and the frivolous him cannot bring her true happiness. What Emma needs is just a lover, an opportunity to escape from vulgar daily life, and a kind of excitement that is afraid of being exposed but has not yet been exposed, not a specific Rudolf

It has been over two years since I wrote this note. During these two years, every time I open WeChat to read, I find new likes and comments constantly appearing under this note. One of them left me a message, thinking that Emma's personality destined her to only meet people like Rudolf, which seems like an inevitable tragedy. Although I still don't know the name and real-life identity of the female reader, sharing her thoughts on the same book on the same online platform makes me feel like our souls are resonating on the same channel, and the barriers of time and space seem to no longer exist. This kind of communication is probably an experience that can only be experienced by reading e-books. My book friends and I don't even need to meet and discuss in real life to share the joy of reading with them from afar. This must be the "making friends through books" in the information age.

When reading e-books on WeChat Reading, you can also see the underlined and annotated notes made by other readers in sync. Sometimes I open and read comments written by other readers, and often find many resonance or plot twists. Alternatively, they may form a "reading team" with three to five friends, making daily check-in appointments and striving to read eight hours of e-books per week to redeem points and unlock more free e-books. Reading was originally a private matter, but the openness of notes, sharing of comments, and sharing with friends make it public and collective, which is also the unique charm of e-books.

Whether it's flipping through physical books with our own hands in a physical bookstore or using WeChat to read e-books, which has become popular in recent years, both are beneficial for us. Reading allows us to find an inner anchor amidst the ever-changing external world. In such a reading environment, people can enjoy moments of solitude and engage in solitary practice, as well as make friends through books and make like-minded companions. Reading has become both a personal and public matter in this era. As World Book Day approaches, I believe more and more people will be willing to pick up a physical book or open a reading app on their phone to start reading.

(Author affiliation: School of Literature, Beijing Normal University)

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