When electronic books became popular and everyone turned to e-readers like Kindles, Nooks and iPads, people predicted the end of paper books. When educational institutions started publishing electronic versions of their training material the printers and training companies panicked and started to adjust their thinking, their projections and their business models.

So where are we now? For years researchers have joined in the debate of books versus e-books and the consensus now seems to be that 'real' books are on the rebound and have plenty of advantages over electronic ones, the biggest one being that comprehension is better with paper books.

Reading on paper may increase retention.

San Jose State University published an iSchool Student Research Journal in 2014 called Digital vs. Print: Reading Comprehension and the Future of the Book. Their article compiles research on how reading comprehension is impacted by each of the three current reading platforms: print books, e-books, and books downloaded onto smartphones or computers. They concluded that print books are still the best suited to the optical, cognitive, and metacognitive requirements of the reading brain. While e-paper technology has been shown to be the optical equivalent of print on paper, e-readers still are lacking in the physicality that has been shown to be so important for comprehension.

In support of paper books, Huffington Post has published several articles, such as Why Reading on a Screen is Bad for Critical Thinking and Sorry, Ebooks. These 9 Studies Show Why Print is Better.

Their research would appear to be backed up by the resurgence of paper book sales. GeekWire's article by Frank Catalano reports that 2014 book sales were up, and that "lowly pressed wood pulp is on the rebound".

Here are the most common negatives reported about e-books:

• Students comprehend less of the information presented in digital books. USA Today shared a 2013 study showing that students retain less when reading on a screen. The study’s creator blamed this on the “flash gimmicks“ embedded in many e-books. She also suspects being able to collectively turn to the same page enhances group discussion.
• E-books damage sleep. The Guardian reported on a Harvard study that found that e-books are damaging to our health; reading a light-emitting e-book before bed will cause you to take longer to fall asleep and affects your alertness the next morning. The article points out that sleep is increasingly being recognized as the key to a healthy body and mind, but electronics can ruin a perfectly good night’s rest, especially for teens.
• A reading device can negatively impact your stress levels. Medical Daily's article maintains that constant use of technology not only disrupts our sleeping patterns, it fosters shorter attention span and fractured focus. The article states that repeated use of mobile phones or laptops late at night has been linked to depression, higher levels of stress, and fatigue among young adults.
• Students don't connect emotionally with on-screen texts. A 2012 study featured in the Guardian gave half its participants a story on paper, and the other half the same story on screen. The result? iPad readers didn’t feel that the story was as immersive, and therefore weren’t able to connect with it on an emotional level. Further, those who read on paper were much more capable of placing the story’s events in chronological order.
• It's hard to avoid multitasking while reading digital books. In a blog for The Huffington Post, Naomi S. Baron wrote about the findings published in her new book, Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World. “Studies I have done with university students in several countries confirm what I bet you’ll find yourself observing,” she writes. “When reading either for (school) work or pleasure, the preponderance of students found it easiest to concentrate when reading in print. They also reported multitasking almost three times as much when reading onscreen as when reading in hard copy.”

Because the e-book trend has such a great impact on the new generation, we wanted to bring your attention to an article published by Scholastic that was titled E-Books vs. Print: What Parents Need to Know. The author Jenny Deam concludes that kids have a lot to gain from both reading tools. The article says that print may be better for hands-on experience, falling in love with reading, and focusing a child's attention. Digital matches print for boosting early reading skills. and that digital may trump print because it's more interactive, more rewarding, and caters to a kid's unique learning style.

Mike Holt's comments: So it looks like 'real' paper books are better for comprehension and retention. If you're studying for an exam, it seems to be that you'd be better off studying from paper books. For recreational reading, if an e-reader is your preference, that's great - just pay attention to how much you read just before bed. Whatever you read on, just make sure that you make the commitment to read at least 10 pages every day. Failure to keep up with current business, social and technological changes is directly linked to failure. If we never read a book on personal or business development where could we expect to be years from now? How could we expect to grow?