Well it finally happened; I caved in and bought a Nook. I’ve wanted an e-reader for quite some time, and so far I’ve enjoyed it immensely. I told myself that if I was going to indulge in buying a Nook I needed to get the cheapest version. They have flashy ones, but realistically no one really needs those ones (I’m not saying they aren’t nice to have). I held to my guns and bought the Nook Simple Touch. Before I bought it I had some ideas about how having an e-reader would save me money in the long run. My initial thoughts were I would save on gas, on furniture, and on the books themselves. Not to mention they are easy to carry around.
If you’re planning on buying an e-reader (and are late to the game like I was) here is how it will most likely add value to your life:
1) You no longer need to drive to the book store (Save money on gas).
2) You won’t need to buy anymore book shelves (Save money on furniture).
3) You won’t get stuck having to buy an expensive book that only comes in hardback (Save money on books).
4) You won’t have to lug books around with you. This is especially convenient for traveling.
After giving the points above some more thought I realized that there is a chance that anyone that buys an e-reader could end up spending more money on books rather than saving. If any of you are like me you’ll read a good book within a week. Sometimes we aren’t sure what to read so we might take a break, maybe a few weeks or months where we don’t read at all. Then we find another good book/series and start the cycle all over again. With the convenience of an e-reader we could end up reading even more (buying more books). Any money we would have saved on 1-3 will be diminished. There goes the whole theory on saving money by buying an e-reader, but all isn’t lost. We will still save time, and sometimes I think time is more valuable than money anyways. The days of browsing the bookstore, waiting for help, sitting in traffic, standing in line, putting together a cheap Wal-Mart bookshelf are over. While the people that don’t have an e-reader are doing those things we’ll be reading our books.
Has buying an e-reader saved you time/money?
Chris Neighbors 