This weeks Mind the Gap challenge is How do you prefer to read, with an eReader like a Kindle or Nook, or with an old school paperback in hand?

I’m still old school. I read heavy paper bound books.

Reasons I don’t have an e-reader:

1. I’m poor.

That’s it really. I don’t want to have to spend money just for a way to read books. I can borrow books from the library for free and I do all the time. The library allows me to read anything I want for no cost at all. Fortunately, I live in Los Angeles, which has a huge central library containing nearly everything ever written, so that is a viable option for me.

Reasons paper books are better:

1. I can loan them out.

My friends and I have an informal book trading group. I’ve found a ton of great books that way. One of us will buy it and if it’s deemed worthy, it will make the rounds. If it’s deemed excessively worthy, we will all buy our own copies. You can’t loan e-books. I checked.

2. Paranoia.

No one is tracking what I read right now other than the public library and they don’t use my information for anything besides budgets. I have a hard enough time with Amazon tracking my purchasing habits to offer me up recommendations for printer ink. The last thing I want is Amazon recommendations on what to read, which would happen if I bought e-books from them.

3. You don’t have to plug them in.

I’m terrible about charging things. My phone and electronic cigarette die all the time because I forget to plug them in. I can only imagine the frustration of getting into a book only to have it crap out on me. I’m already running low on electrical outlets in my room.

4. If you drop them, they don’t break.

I can’t tell you how many time I’ve dropped my cell phone. I’d hate to spend several hundred on another thing I have to worry about dropping.

5. You don’t have to turn a book off on an airplane.

But you do have to turn off e-readers. At least right now, you do. I would imagine they’ll probably fix that eventually.

6. Easy recall.

I have a terrible memory and I have to refer back in books a lot. Strangely, my memory won’t recall what was written, but it will recall generally where. My brain won’t remember who a character was, but it will tell me where to look for it: “That character appeared roughly twenty pages back on the bottom left of the page.” Thank you, brain. That would be lost with an e-reader.

7. I like the feel, smell and heft of books.

I just do. I like seeing exactly where I am in a book at a glance.

Reasons e-readers are better:

1. Selection.

If you don’t live in one of the largest cities in the world, your library might be lacking. If that was the case, you could purchase e-books cheaper than traditional books.

2. You can carry multiple books.

If you are one of those people that reads twenty books at once, this would come in handy. I am not. I read one at a time.

3. E-readers are lighter and take up less room than books.

If you’re going on vacation, it might be easier to pack one e-reader and one charger than a bunch of heavy books.

Reasons I’d probably use both:

1.  If I had an e-reader, I would use it for traveling probably. If I ever went on vacation, which I don’t really.

1. If anyone would like to buy one for me, I’ll gladly test it out.