As someone who has fallen back into my obsessive, overindulgent binge-until-your-eyes-bleed reading habits, I’ve found myself inhaling all forms of books—digital, hardcover, paperback, and audiobooks. 

Being able to clearly visualize what’s happening and understand what the author is trying to convey is my main priority, but it’s impossible for me to do pretty much anything without developing an unwarranted opinion on it.

So here I am, trying to express my disdain for digital books.

I think that they’re an efficient medium, for sure, especially considering that not every author has the resources to make printed copies of their works, and can garner lots of attention online.

That being said, it is insanely hard for me to focus when all I have to do is flip one tab over to get from my novel to a YouTube video essay about Victorious. 

My eyes tend to wander over the words instead of retaining them, and I struggle to establish the proper head voice for each character.

The feel of my phone is not as satisfying as turning a page or running my hands over jet black lettering, and it almost feels like an off-brand substitution for a physical copy as opposed to a version all on its own.

Unfortunately, it’s the most convenient method for me to obtain something that I’ve been dying to read, so I continue with my struggle of not enjoying the reading experience to its full extent.

Maybe someone should develop pop-up digital pages—that’d be a definite game changer.