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Weekly Writing Challenge: Mind the Gap

Erica

Our blogs are platforms from which we share our experiences, opinions, and views with the online world. For Mind the Gap challenges, we want to hear what you think about a divisive issue. Each challenge will include a poll where you can cast your vote along with your fellow Daily Post participants. After you vote, tell us more about how you feel by expanding on the topic in a blog post. Be sure to visit other participants’ posts to get some healthy discussion going.

To participate, tag your posts with DPchallenge and leave a link to your post in the comments. Please be sure your post has been specifically written in response to this challenge; obvious attempts to link-bait will be deleted. We’ll keep an eye on the tag and highlight some of our favorites on Freshly Pressed each Friday.


We bloggers are lovers of the written word. As people who read and write online, we are also part of the digital shift in how we consume writing, be it journalism, literature, poetry, or memoirs. As the mode of publishing changes, so do our interactions with what we’re reading.

Not too long ago, ebook sales trumped those of hardcovers for the first time. While the ease of digital books can’t be beat — how else can you hold hundreds of books in your hand so easily? — the physical sensation is undeniably different than cracking open a new paperback.

Around WordPress.com, other bloggers have been talking about ebooks versus hardcovers. Writing My Next Chapter is making the jump to using all ebooks in place of traditional textbooks for the semester, and though Steve of Imagineer-ing has made the switch to an eReader, letting go of hardcovers is a difficult task. While bookshelves display our favorite works of literature like art, wouldn’t the ultimate bibliophile love the ease of carrying hundreds of books in a teensy mobile device?

This week’s Mind the Gap: How do you prefer to read, with an eReader like a Kindle or Nook, or with an old school paperback in hand? Take the poll (below) and then explain your opinion by blogging about it on your site. Tag your post “DPchallenge,” so that we can be sure to find your contribution to the challenge.

272 Comments
  1. Definitely the old school paperback. I tried reading ebook a few times, but stopped after few pages. Couldn’t connect with it. I’m just in love with books.

    February 5, 2013
  2. Here’s my entry to the Weekly Writing Challenge :)

    http://mydiffer3nce.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/dpchallenge-mind-the-gap/

    February 6, 2013
  3. Here is my entry for the challenge :
    http://vandysnape.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/to-read-or-not-to-read-that-is-the-question/

    For me it is always the printed ones :)

    February 6, 2013
  4. Here is my entry:

    http://iamkellibeck.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/e-reader-or-printed-books/

    I like them both, but nothing beats the printed book :)

    February 6, 2013
  5. I’m making the case for eReaders here, even though I grew up as a librarian’s daughter:

    http://jenwrites2.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/weekly-writing-challenge-book-or-ereader/

    February 6, 2013
  6. http://tranquilsigh.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/mind-the-gap/ trying to take the diplomatic approach here….

    February 6, 2013
  7. I’m a blind bookworm – perhaps my entry gives a different point of, ahem, view:

    http://bethfinke.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/this-might-explain-why-my-tips-werent-so-great/

    February 6, 2013
  8. Was surprised that not as many enjoyed an eReader, here’s why:
    http://everythingfromfaraway.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/dpchallenge-mind-the-gap/

    February 6, 2013
  9. I definitely can’t live without books, no matter what the form. http://therowesgarden.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/dp-challenge-ebooks-paper-books-or-both-that-is-the-question/

    February 6, 2013
  10. I’ve skewed my response to Travel-oriented as that’s what my blog is about
    http://tvortravels.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/weekly-writing-challenge-mind-the-gap-ereader-or-paper/

    February 6, 2013
  11. Here is my take on ebooks and paper books.
    http://buggjoy1.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/weekly-writing-challenge-mind-the-gap/

    February 6, 2013
  12. Here’s mine! A really interesting question – even harder to answer when you’re a writer hoping to be published…

    http://thelifeofathinker.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/mind-the-gap-accepting-the-truth/

    February 6, 2013
  13. A great question! Here is my reply: http://wp.me/p36QHi-v

    February 6, 2013
  14. I’m a bookworm, and love eReaders, despite having some ideas for how to improve them. My thoughts are at http://diaryofasadwidow.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/what-do-you-call-an-electronic-bookworm/ ; I’m interested to see what other people think and have to say.

    February 6, 2013
  15. This is my entry: http://mirymoseyshellcat.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/weekly-writing-challenge-digital-vs-paperback/

    This is also my first go at a weekly prompt :)

    February 6, 2013
  16. Crandall #

    I think BOTH are good to have! Each have their uses. Since I’m with my electronics so much, I tend to spend more time with an ebook. But I have reference books and picture books that I wouldn’t want in digital form.

    February 6, 2013
  17. Crandall #

    Here’s the link to my post! Fun topic. http://westcoastcrandall.com/2013/02/06/tome-alone/

    February 6, 2013
  18. Although I prefer paper-books, I believe it doesn’t really matter what version one chooses to satisfy their literary hunger and hence here’s my post on the challenge

    http://amidstbooks.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/weekly-writing-challenge-printed-books-or-ebooks-does-it-really-matter/

    -Asha

    February 7, 2013
  19. here’s my take on the matter: I heart paperbacks

    http://wp.me/p6FwZ-Yu

    February 7, 2013
  20. http://yeahthtsme.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/weekly-writing-challenge-mind-the-gap/

    After an update the link doesn’t seem to be working in pingbacks.

    February 7, 2013
  21. So far, I seem to be in the minority who prefer the electronic books – and there’s some good discussions going on http://diaryofasadwidow.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/what-do-you-call-an-electronic-bookworm/ What do you think?

    February 7, 2013
  22. So far, I seem to be in the minority – favoring eReaders – but there’s some good discussions going on http://diaryofasadwidow.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/what-do-you-call-an-electronic-bookworm/ – what do you think?

    February 7, 2013
  23. Paperbacks for sure. I even participated in the poll.
    My entry for this week’s writing challenge: http://beyondbeautytips.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/bookshelves-and-scrapbooks/

    February 7, 2013
  24. Hey everyone. Here is my response to this:

    http://www.mydailydoseblog.com/wcr

    February 7, 2013
  25. Bob #

    Shaggy ‘n Bob offer the feline perspective on the ebook vs paperback debate:

    http://shaggybob.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/ebook-vs-paperback-the-feline-perspective/

    February 7, 2013
  26. My entry to this week’s challenge, a walk down memory lane!
    http://wp.me/p1RwiF-cW

    February 7, 2013
  27. Here is my contribution to this discussion:
    http://fabricalchemist.com/2013/02/07/tactile-vs-digital/

    February 7, 2013
  28. Monica Lee #

    The issue is not so black-and-white as the poll suggests. I’m somewhere in the gray area between … http://mindfulmonica.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/paperbacks-have-me-lingering-but-ebooks-beckon/

    February 7, 2013
  29. I almost feel duty-bound to resist e-readers, even if their eventual rule feels inevitable. I love you, paper books. Except the sometimes that I don’t.

    <a href="http://anageonism.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/the-library-card-philanderer/"The Library Card Philanderer

    February 7, 2013
  30. Here’s mine: http://culturallife.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/weekly-writing-challenge-ebook-or-real-book/

    I voted paperback in the poll and that is the stance I have taken in my post; paperbacks are wonderful! I am thinking about getting a Kindle though. ;)

    February 7, 2013
  31. Hillary #

    It’s really hard to choose, but I’d ultimately have to give my love to the paperback.
    Still, I’d have to make a nostalgic case for both:
    http://lemonadegrenade.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/how-many-thousand-words/

    February 7, 2013
  32. Reading via paperback is about more than just the smell. Certain paperbacks have become very personal to me and I consider them “echoes” of me as they have led to the manifestation of my shrine. (:

    http://eclipsedmind.com/2013/02/07/experiencing-the-paperback/

    February 7, 2013
  33. Books and eBooks both have their advantages and disadvantages, but eBooks won’t cut it for me until they present an entirely unique reading experience.

    http://idiosyncriticnz.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/a-novel-reading-experience/

    February 7, 2013
  34. http://beingmommyvp.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/ereaders-one-step-closer-to-having-to-carry-nothing-at-all/

    eReaders bring us closer to the future of content (and life!) management.

    February 7, 2013
  35. Its all about convenience and on the rare occasion that I pick up a real book, it’s makes for something special, old school and very tactile. I just didn’t realize that fact prior to ebooks. I don’t eat carbs either but I pig out every once in a while on potato chips and that makes me truly appreciate potato chips!

    Tom

    February 7, 2013
  36. I’m a fence-sitter…I wouldn’t give up my paperbacks or my eReader!
    http://thingsiseeandknow.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/fence-sitting/

    February 7, 2013
  37. wish you had a third category…it depends

    February 8, 2013
  38. My entry:

    http://froodianpseudoanalysis.wordpress.com/

    Cage Match Special: Ebooks vs Real Books… Comments welcome, but only if they’re nice ones because I’m a sensitive and delicate flower, yo.

    February 8, 2013
  39. paperback – deffo. ereaders just don’t feel right

    February 8, 2013
  40. Rachel Nin #

    I voted for paper books because they’re just so much more of an individual experience, and they hold so many memories. But I don’t think one precludes the other, and I surprised myself by actually really liking my Nook. My response:
    http://insertthetitlehere.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/the-question-of-e-books/

    February 8, 2013
  41. I prefer newspapers to tablets as well

    February 9, 2013
  42. I go arboreal, but see the need for e-books too.
    http://touch153.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/will-that-be-paper-or-plastic/

    February 10, 2013
  43. here is mine, paperback/hardcover for me!
    adityaviyer.com/2013/02/11/paperback-or-ebooks/

    February 11, 2013

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

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