Anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I am a book lover, a massive one. Books are in all honesty the one and only true love of my live. I read books across all genres and formats and I am constantly keeping abreast of what’s trending as I follow a large number of book blogs on many different social media sites. I also love to follow my favourite authors across these sites and read their blogs to keep up with what they are doing professionally.

One thing I have noticed with some hardcore book fans, though, is that a certain level of digital shaming persists even in what is clearly the digital age. The idea being that if you don’t read books exclusively on paper then you don’t really have the right to call yourself a book lover. I completely disagree with this for a number of reasons. I have worked in the digital sphere of publishing for the better part of my professional life and I fully support and endorse all digital formats, whether eBooks or audio, while maintaining an old-fashioned love of the physical book.

My book purchasing habits have changed in recent years but rather than abandoning one format for another I have found that the way I purchase is different for physical and digital. For me, purchasing physical books has become all about exploration and discovery. One of my favourite things to do is to walk in to a bookshop on a lazy Saturday afternoon and immerse myself in the shelves, judging books by their magnificent covers, reading the blurbs at my leisure and sifting through every sprawling genre, shelf by shelf, slowly and deliberately. This normally culminates with my snapping out of a trance hours later, my arms laden down, being asked to leave the bookshop as the staff would like to go home!

With digital books, my purchasing habits are geared toward acquiring immediate information. For example if I have read an article online or in a newspaper and I am, in that moment, incredibly interested in the subject matter and wish to know more, then I will look for content that I can purchase then and there so that I can get reading as soon as possible. If I were to wait until I had time to go to a bookshop I would run the risk of that title not being in stock, and in the meantime the surge of interest I had in the subject might wane. When I eventually get a copy of the book it will, unfortunately, most likely join my huge pile of "to-read" books that will just gather dust. The same applies if I have been recommended a book very highly and I simply can’t wait until I can find a physical copy. In these moments being able to purchase a book and have the first chapter read within a matter of minutes is exactly what I love about digital. I also have yet to get over the novelty of being able to pull one light device out of my handbag and have an entire library at my fingertips, filled with hundreds of books to suit whatever mood I’m in. It’s all so incredibly convenient that I find it hard to believe that there are still avid readers out there who haven’t joined the digital revolution!

I now find that the amount of book I consume has doubled in recent years due to various avenues available to acquire content. Obviously it is all about personal preference; however, at the end of the day books are written to be read and the content should be the driving force behind what you purchase and consume rather than what format it is delivered on.

Pam Murphy

Account Manager at Vearsa