The figures for the US book market have just come in, and one piece of news is sure to delight digital book lovers: ebook sales topped the billion-dollar mark in 2023.
This is an impressive figure: in the USA, in 2023, digital books of the ebook (text) type brought in over a billion dollars (+0.6%)!
This figure covers sales of digital books for e-readers, of course, but also sales of ebooks to be read on computers (PDF documents), smartphones and tablets (ebooks from the apps from Google and Apple).
While printed books are holding up remarkably well, with estimated sales of almost $9 billion by 2023, the same cannot be said for physical audiobooks. Unsurprisingly, sales of physical audiobooks (in CD form) are down to a paltry $12.9 million.
Now, if we add up all these figures, we see that the book market is slightly down by 0.3% over the year 2023.
The market is therefore holding steady, with digital sales continuing to increase year on year.
E-readers have revolutionized the way we read books, and millions of us around the world use one every day. But are you getting the most out of your e-reading experience?
This guide will show you how to change the settings on your e-reader to make reading more comfortable and enjoyable.
> TLDR: Don’t be afraid to experiment with different text settings to find what works best for you.
Use the built-in reading statistics to track your progress and stay motivated. Consider using an external light source.
Find the right settings for your e-reader
image: configure text settings on a Pocketbook Verse Pro e-reader
When we buy an e-reader and use it, we often make the mistake of configuring it to reproduce the reading experience of a paper book.
But an e-reader allows us to be much more flexible and creative when it comes to displaying text.
So we need to experiment to find the text settings that suit us best. Here are a few examples:
Change screen orientation
Increase font size significantly
Changing the font and installing new fonts on your e-reader
Switch the e-reader to night mode with white characters on a black background
Personally, I’ve set up my e-reader with very large fonts and plenty of space between lines, which means I can read faster – even if I have to change pages more often.
Use the built-in reading progress statistics
Image: configure reading progress on Kobo e-readers
If you want to stay motivated or read more, you can use the built-in reading progress statistics on your e-reader:
Visualization of Progress: statistics like "time left in chapter" or "percentage of book read" give you a tangible sense of accomplishment. Seeing a number tick down or a percentage climb can be very motivating, especially when tackling a long book.
Setting Goals: You can use statistics to set realistic reading goals. Knowing how long a typical chapter takes you to read allows you to aim for a certain number of chapters per day or week.
Maintaining Momentum: Statistics can help you stay on track. Seeing how much you’ve read in a single sitting or over a period can encourage you to keep going, especially if you’re close to a milestone like finishing a chapter or reaching a certain percentage.
I therefore strongly recommend that you configure the display of statistics on your e-reader.
Use an external light source
Image: you may feel tired when reading with the built-in light of your e-reader
Just because your e-reader has a screen with built-in lighting doesn’t mean you have to use it.
If you feel tired when reading an ebook on your e-reader, you can change the lighting settings, such as its intensity or the blue light filter.
I’d also recommend using a bedside lamp if your eyes get tired, or at least more tired than when reading a paper book.
There’s a lot of information all over the Internet about the so-called polluting nature of ebooks. Quite simply, the figures are announced at the drop of a hat. It’s time to find out how eco friendly are eBooks!
TLDR: it’s much better (eco friendly) to read an ebook than to buy and read the paper version if you already own hardware capable of reading the ebook.
What is the carbon footprint of an ebook?
There are studies on the carbon footprint of e-readers and paper books, but not ebook reading alone.
Of course, the media pick up on all this without paying any attention to the fine print.
So let’s start again with what an ebook is.
> An ebook is a computer file of a few hundred Kb to a few Mb in size.
> This file is transmitted by an Internet server to your e-reader when you download it.
To take into account everything that goes into reading an ebook, we also need to take into account the download when calculating the carbon footprint of an ebook.
Note that this mode of operation is simple and corresponds almost identically to the way a web page is retrieved from a web server by your Internet browser.
We can therefore rely on existing studies on the subject to calculate this.
A study that seems to me to be fairly serious and reliable arrives at an average carbon footprint of 5 g of CO² for a web page. And therefore, for an ebook too. See here: https://en.reset.org/whats-carbon-footprint-your-website/
An ebook can be read, with a carbon footprint of around 5g of CO² on a smartphone, tablet, e-reader or computer! After all, it’s just a file downloaded onto a device.
On the other hand, the carbon footprint of a e-reader is undoubtedly greater, at around 100 to 200kg of CO² (compared with less than 100kg of CO² for a smartphone).
If you already own a device that allows you to read books, the most eco-friendly thing to do is to use the equipment you have at your disposal to read your digital books (ebooks), giving priority to the most energy-efficient devices:
Smartphone
Tablet
E-reader
The use of a computer is not recommended, however, as the time it takes to read your book (5 to 10 hours) can consume a lot of electricity.
As far as the carbon footprint of electricity is concerned, if the vast majority of which comes from nuclear power, it is negligible. But this is a different and more complex subject.
Yes, ebooks are green!
In conclusion, it’s much better (eco friendly) to read an ebook than to buy and read the paper version if you already own hardware capable of reading the ebook.
So if you have a smartphone, tablet or e-reader, the ebook is much greener than the paper book when you buy it.
Reading an ebook could help combat global warming.
In the category of e-readers, which are also digital note-taking tools (or digital notepads), Bigme offers machines that push the technical boundaries ever further. But haven’t they gone too far this time?
The Bookeen Notéa is a very successful machine in France and, to a lesser extent, in Europe. As a result, it is regularly out of stock and very difficult to find!
Kobo, a company committed to making its e-readers more sustainable, has taken notable steps in this direction. Firstly, the devices are partly made from recycled plastic, and they are also repairable.
Why do we read? Why do we read more? What are the advantages of reading, and what benefits does reading have for us? Here are some answers in this article.
