While most of us love to hold and own a piece of literature that is embossed on the debris of crushed trees, there are situations where an electronic version is particularly useful:
- You can adjust the text size to make reading more comfortable. My wife makes the text large when she hasn’t got her reading spectacles. This is far more convenient than trying to read fixed format documents on a screen of the wrong size or shape.
- You can search for any words in the text.
- Click a word and the dictionary definition appears
- You can add highlights and notes, and share comments with others who have the eBook.
- There are vast numbers of free books available, many such as the classics that are simply out of copyright.
- If you are an avid reader, your bookshelves may be creaking under the weight.
- If you own an eBook reader then you can store loads of other documents on it. I put all sorts on mine: the instruction manuals for all the household equipment, user guides for cameras, local bus timetable etc.,
- With many books, you can get free book samples – read the first chapter for free before you decide to buy either an eBook or a paper one from your local bookshop.
- Kindle’s Whispersync saves and synchronises your last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across your devices.
Note: All these features are available on the Amazon Kindle eBook system, but some may not work on some other eBook readers.
However Bottleneck is an extensive book and many will prefer to have the physical version.