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This era of fast-paced technology and the internet has transformed the bookworm's life. With countless stories and so much information at our fingertips, do people still read books for pleasure? See how this age of digital reading has changed how we consume books, whether for knowledge or fun.

Back in the day, life was pretty simple for a bookworm. Hardbound or paperback? Buy or borrow? There was no other way to read a book but to curl up in your favorite corner and dive into its pages. But in this age of the digital reader, a book can be published in various ways. More worlds and perspectives are open to hungry readers, and authors have more choices for marketing strategies and publishing formats. How has all this tech changed how we read, whether for knowledge or pleasure?

A plethora of choices

Pages or pixels? Sound or sight? Today, we can devour books on a printed page, a pixelated screen, or as an audiobook. Let’s take a look at why these formats have become so popular and where you can get your hands (or ears) on them.

Ebooks

Your entire library, whether hundreds or thousands of titles, in an electronic device you can take with you anywhere—this is, perhaps, the biggest draw of an ebook reader. You can purchase an ebook from the comfort of your home, before a long flight, or while hanging out with your four-legged buddy at the dog park. Ebooks are often cheaper than their physical counterparts, so you save money and precious shelf space. And because you can increase the font size of an ebook, it’s also a great option for those with reading disabilities or sight issues. 

Here are several online ebook stores you should check out. Happy shopping!

• Amazon
• Apple Books
• eBooks.com
• Smashwords
• Barnes and Noble
• Project Gutenberg
• Kobo
• Google Play Books
• BookBub

 

Audiobooks

If you’re great at multitasking or just don’t have the time to sit down with a book, then audiobooks might be for you. You can listen to a memoir or a travel book during your morning and evening commute, making that metro ride or daily drive more enjoyable. 

When you’re at home, you can finish a sci-fi, horror, or romance novel while completing household tasks such as cooking, cleaning, or doing laundry. You can listen to several chapters while exercising on your treadmill, stationary bike, or rowing machine. You’re resting your eyes while getting things done—all while getting lost in another world or exploring someone else’s perspective.

Are you ready for some easy listening? Check out these online audiobook stores:

• Audible
• Scribd
• Apple Audiobooks
• Audiobooks.com
• Google Play Audiobooks
• Librivox
• Kobo Audiobooks
• Downpour

Choosing your next book

Wondering which book to put on your TBR pile? Even how we find out about an upcoming book release has changed. 

You can watch a book trailer, which is a short video to promote a book. You can follow bookstagrammers on Instagram. Using artfully staged photos or videos, these Instagram users post book reviews, reading lists, and themed recommendations with the hashtag #bookstagram. You can visit the Goodreads website (or download the app) to find new books to read, track the books you’ve read (and want to read), check out user reviews, and get personalized book recommendations. Over at TikTok, a corner of this app is devoted to books, with bibliophiles sharing their reviews and recommendations. The hashtag #BookTok has nearly 106 billion views.

Thanks to social media and the internet, the world has become one big book club. That's perfect for the bookworm searching for the next great read or itching to tell everyone, “You have to read this!”

The “biliterate” brain

There have been many studies comparing the impact of digital and print reading on comprehension. And when it comes to learning, print is king.

“When the text is longer than about 500 words, readers generally perform better on comprehension tests with print passages,” writes Naomi S. Baron, professor emerita of linguistics at American University. She is also the author of How We Read Now: Strategic Choices for Print, Screen, and Audio. 

“The superiority of print especially shines through when experimenters go beyond questions having superficial answers to those whose responses require inferences, details about the text, or remembering when and where in a story an event took place,” Baron shares.

In her book Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World, Professor Maryanne Wolf, a University of California, Los Angeles neuroscientist writes, “I believe that the reading brain is changing imperceptibly. The glut of information that we are all bombarded with is actually changing how we read.” 

“This skimming, browsing, word-spotting way of reading on digital screens is bleeding over to all of what we are reading, which has truly potentially pernicious effects on the quality of thought that we are using while we read,” Wolf shares.

With digital reading, speed is the name of the game. We go online to get information quickly, using search functions, and clicking on keywords. We scan and scroll to get what we need. With print, we can slow down, lingering over sentences and paragraphs to gain a deeper understanding of the material.

Pages and pixels are here to stay in our lives and in our schools. To succeed in this digital age, young learners must cultivate a “biliterate reading brain”, according to Wolf—one that is capable of critical analysis, empathy, and a high level of comprehension no matter the medium. By building deep reading skills in this digital age, readers can have the best of both worlds. 

 

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