To eBook or Not to eBook?

English: A Picture of a eBook Español: Foto de eBook Беларуская: Фотаздымак электроннай кнігі Русский: Фотография электронной книги (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Should I take actual books on my road trip or go lighter and just read from my iPad? The question arises because I find I spend too much time staring at the screen as it is. I have a number of books, classics I never got around to reading, on my iPad and I really should get around to reading them. I’m just not sure I’ll read as much as if I have an actual book in my hands and I do like to read in bed at night before going to sleep. So while I’ll have my iPad with me (90% sure) on my road trip, I think I must stick with taking my books along.

The next question is, do I take just a couple of really thick books? or do I take a lot of “normal” size books? You can’t plan these things too far in advance. I read a book recently by Kate Mosse called Labyrinth. It was so captivating I could hardly put it down. It had to do with a mysterious sect of Christianity from the past and another sect that was trying to wipe them out and possess their mystical powers, centered around a labyrinth. Ms. Mosse eases into the story with a present day archaeological dig (surprise, surprise!) and proceeds to weave the story between characters in medieval times and their counterparts/descendents in the present. By the end of the tale, when I saw the walking

Cover of Labyrinth

tour she added at the back of the book for the real-life medieval town, Languedoc, France, where the story takes place, I knew it was a place I was going to want to visit and I knew I

would want to “do the tour.”

So now I have two more of her books coming in the mail, Sepulchre and Citadel, (part 2 and 3 of the Languedoc trilogy) and I just know they’re going to be as thick and compelling as Labyrinth. Should I leave them for my road trip (if I can)? or read them now and take shorter books on the road? Let me know what you think. But whatever you do, read Kate Mosse!!