Books and Carbon Footprints

Which is better?

The question of which is better, printed paper books or e-books or audio books, comes up a lot on social media among readers, and frequently it’s more a question of aesthetics or personal preference. But I have actually had people challenge my preference for e-books, claiming that my e-reader used power to charge and was made of plastic and other materials that aren’t biodegradable.

Who gets to decide?

I avoid arguments online as much as possible these days, because they can get disproportionately contentious, and to what end? Still, the question occurs to me now and then, and I still see it posted now and then. Which is better? I think it comes down in many cases to personal needs. At least for me it does.

Is a paper book better because paper is renewable, or worse because of carbon sequestration, inks, glues, power used to make paper, print books and ship them?

Today, NPR posted an article addressing this very question. I found it useful in answering some of my internal questions, and I think it might be interesting to my readers, so I’m sharing the link here:

What’s better for the climate: A paper book, or an e-reader?

Individual Values

I read a lot. I’m not the most voracious reader I’ve come across, not even close. But when I mention to some people how many books I’ve read in a year, they gawk at me. There’s nothing impressive about it, to my way of thinking. I just like to read, and not usually the most erudite or literary works, either. For me, reading is an escape as well as entertainment, a way to learn new things, to improve myself, question myself, or sometimes just something to do when I can’t sleep rather than disturb my partner by doing something more active.

My situation is not the same as someone else’s. Some people (I do too) love the aesthetics of paper books, the feel of the paper, the heft, the smell of ink and glue, beautiful cover art, or in my case those old-fashioned cloth covers that had designs embossed into them.

I also have arthritis and bad eyesight. I love that my e-reader always weighs the same, no matter how long a book I’m reading on it, and that I can scale the font, dim or brighten the display, and turn a page with the tap of a finger. I can carry it in my bag, and if I read in bed at night, I’m not disturbing anyone by having a light on or rustling pages.

I used to buy a lot of books, when I worked full-time and more often had enough for those kinds of luxury purchases. Now I’m retired on a small pension, and I read library books or borrow from Kindle Unlimited. Now and then I buy a book, but these days it’s a special occasion when I do that. My e-reader makes those book loans a snap. I don’t even have to drive anywhere, and in the course of a year I can read well over 100 books with no dent in my budget.

I used to have to find room on my bookshelves for books, or find ways to donate them, and eventually with some well-loved books the pages would start to fall out.

The only books I choose to buy now, other than e-books, are frequently the kind that have lots of color photos, artwork, or diagrams, like knitting or art books, or are the kind of nonfiction that I like to make notes in, or be able to flip quickly from one page to another out of sequence, or clog up with sticky notes. For reading a novel, I much prefer an e-book.

I’ve had the same e-reader for ten years now, and have read hundreds of books on it, if not over a thousand. I don’t think it’s filling up the landfill yet, since I still own and use it. I like that it’s a dedicated, monochrome e-reader, so I can’t possibly distract myself while reading by going online or checking my email. It does have a rudimentary browser, but that’s only helpful for looking something up in Wikipedia now and then. It integrates with Goodreads, so I can rate a book as soon as I’ve finished reading it.

The highlighting and note-taking function I have a love-hate relationship with, because I can get frenetic about highlighting. I’m not sure why that is, but sometimes I wish the reader wouldn’t let me highlight at all, or that I could just delete all the highlights in a book at once. But that’s my problem, and has nothing to do with the environmental impact of reading on an electronic device.

Reading versus Listening?

Is listening to audio books really reading? Of course it is. That said, I usually don’t like to listen to books, especially while trying to do something else as well. I have tried it, and it has its charms. But my attention has a tendency to wander when listening rather than focusing on a page, and then I’ll find I’ve missed something and have trouble knowing where I lost my focus. Or if I try to listen to a story while knitting, I’m either knitting or listening, but I’m not doing both. I have never been good at multi-tasking, and while brain scientists now say no one is, that it’s more a matter of time-sharing, I don’t think I’m a good brain time-sharer either. I’m doing one thing or the other, not more than one and switching rapidly back and forth. If I listen to something while I knit or read, it’s better for me if it’s music, and not music I want to listen closely to. That doesn’t mean I don’t like to listen to a charming voice read something. It’s just not at all a common way for me to read. And it doesn’t mean that listening isn’t reading for those who choose it. And the only reason to even mention this here is that audio books are usually in a digital format, like e-books, and the newer e-readers let you read either e-books or audio books.

Books Win

If the argument is between what’s better for the environment, paper or electronic, in my view both e-books and audio books win, depending on how the audio books are stored, and whether any special device such as an e-reader is actually used. In the days of tape cassettes, I’m sure they were less environmentally friendly. But now I don’t know of anyone who stores them that way, though I have a few old ones like that in a drawer. They’re usually stored digitally now, and use up no paper or plastic on a per listen or read basis.

Libraries

That said, I hope that paper books will always exist in some form. I hope people who collect them keep doing so, even though I hope fewer will be printed and there will be less waste. I hope that libraries continue to carry both, and I hope there are always book stores to browse in.

In two of my favorite movies, City of Angels and What Dreams May Come, there are libraries, in the first as a favorite stopping place for angels, and in the second a great heavenly library where people browse by floating through it. I love all those great libraries that we see in photos sometimes or hear stories of. I read The Name of the Rose, years ago, and still watch the film with great reverence for the library it depicts, and when my husband and I used to do a little traveling (back when we could afford to), we would stop to visit a library or bookstore in whatever town or city we found ourselves in. There is something almost sacred to me about shelves full of printed books, and I hope they always exist. For now, though, I have an e-book I want to get back to.

Happy reading!