I can understand that many of us love the tactile feeling of a book or the feeling of a pen in our hand while we brainstorm/note-take on paper. I, too, love that feeling, but to have an eReader of some sorts (iPad, Nook, Kindle, or another device) just makes more sense.

Think of the endless possibilities of books, PDFs, newspapers, etc. that you can keep at your finger tips and not in your real backpack. No more need to remember to bring multiple things with you. No more need to keep endless stacks of clipped articles or wondering where you stashed them. Keeping it all in your digital backpack with you gives you complete access to your own portable library, no matter where you are.

The iPad, Nook, or Kindle is not much bigger than a plain ol’ fashioned notebook (where you can still scribble notes and brainstorm). Having each is the best of both worlds for us tactile people. We still get to have a notebook to scribble in and have an electronic device to be our digital backpack. Many of the devices also allow for note jotting in the margins and/or highlighting the text.

By it’s nature eReaders are a great back pain reliever, too. No more Aleve or Tylenol to help us get through the pain of carrying so much material with us. Oh, it’s also better for the environment because trees are not sacrificed for the paper to make the book(s). Rather, the electricity used to recharge the eReader can be used from renewable energy.

I just wish there were more books available for these devices.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/

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