eBooks vs dead tree books

From and expat point of view, "dead tree" books are a pain in the arms as they take so much carrying around.
I had to leave all mine back in the UK, a sad loss.
However, I dislike ebooks so I have pretty much stopped reading.

That changes with audio books and films, my notable collection of both able to fit on a few high capacity flask drives with ease.
Imagine lugging all those DVDs around.. ouch.

@Fred,

Have you tried reading an eBook with something like a smaller iPad? I know iPads are expensive. But reading an eBook on a smaller iPad or even one of the Amazon.com eReaders is actually, in some ways, better than reading a book. Busses and Airlines are good examples.

I've tried them on several computers (including tablets) and a couple of phones and I just can't get into them in the same way as I can with paper.
I've adjusted brightness and text size but it just isn't the same.

also - you can't splatter flies with a computer without breaking it.

In the last two decades alone, we moved house 13 times. We lived in 6 US states, then Europe, then back to the States. Thousands of books, CDs, and DVDs made the moves with us.

In the last 3 years, I slowly donated 90% of them to friends, neighbours, acquaintances, libraries, and Goodwill. Last month, I gave up most of the last 10%, keeping only enough to fill 4 U-Haul moving boxes. In 2 of the 4 boxes are dictionaries, beautiful and heavy tomes that I collected while living in Europe. They will go into storage unit with other belongings while we spend the next 4 years in Asia.

I could not give up reading so I turned to electronic devices. I read ebooks and listen to audiobooks from my Kindle Paperwhite, iPad, laptop, iPhone, and iPod. Unfortunately, Apple discontinued iPod Classic 3 years ago; it will pain me greatly when my 10-year-old iPod gives up the ghost, which probably any day now. I've transferred half of the 140+ GB of audiobooks that I want to keep to Google Drive.

To me the feeling of reading a real book always beats Ebook, I mean reading a paper book is like meeting someone in person and it's so much better than talking with someone over Facetime or Skype. Please excuse me if I'm old-fashioned 

I feel the same way as you do about print books, SiNguyen, but when one travels all the time or when space is limited, one has to choose between having books in other formats or not having books at all.

For instance, I usually finish a 300-page book in a day or less, so having enough books to read at any given time is very space-consuming. Impossible almost.

Not only is it the carrying of hundreds of books in one's pocket. One also has immediate access to literally millions of books in various languages almost instantaneously, almost anywhere in the world and at frequently reduced prices.

Let the trees live.

Mr. E -- Do you have access to e-libraries from the States? With e-libraries, you can download and keep books up to 21 days. Aside from Amazon Prime (free) books, public e-libraries are my preferred source, with millions of books available free of charge.

@Ciambella

As my wife wrote a book, available from Amazon.com

"For Two Cows I Ain't Half-Bad: the memoir of a young girl in the Vietnam War" Kindle Edition (or paperback)
by Bac thi Eaton  (Author), Sam Eaton (Editor)

I tend to collect and pay for books that I enjoy, even in the eBook format. We've also written and sold magazine articles. We are retired and have a decent retirement income. I've been considering and playing with a follow up book to my wife's book.

Sam

Mr. E -- My daughter bought Mrs E's book in paperback for herself and Kindle Edition as a gift to me. I laughed and cried and laughed again over it. I wish I could give Mrs E a big hug.

@Ciambella

I gave your hug to her. Thank you

Sam