London 2012: Day 3

Day 3 of my trip would be devoted to more walking and plenty of shopping. I hit up Oxford Street and Soho and ticked off plenty from my fashion wish list to make a shoplog once I get back. So keep your eyes peeled for that but now let me just tell you what I exactly did on Day 3.

Marble Arch

My day started with a crowded subway ride during London’s rush hour. Perhaps not the best idea, but I was a girl with a mission: hit up Primark before everyone else did. I took the tube to Marble Arch and since I had never been able to take a proper picture of that monument I decided to go ahead and do just that before going to Primark. Luckily for me Primark was quiet when I got there and so I could browse to my heart’s content without having to step over people or be pushed around by crowds.

After Primark I hit up some more major store chains, which is what you do when you shop on Oxford Street. I went to Forever 21, TopShop, Urban Outfitters and Monki (in Selfridges). I found green pants (yay!), not 1 but 3 (!) bulky sweaters and two really cute dresses. I had also found out where the MAC Pro Store was located (in Carnaby Street) and browsed around there too. As I now found myself in Soho, I walked around some more into the general direction of Leicester Square and also found Make Up Store AND Illamasqua shops located in the Carnaby Street area. So, if you like make up and you are shopping in London, go to Carnaby Street!

Since it was only 4 PM I tried to see which movies were showing at that time, but again found nothing good playing so I just got onto the tube again and headed back to the hotel. My feet desperately needed a rest and I just watched some TV while reading blogs and writing a few of my own (including this one). I decided on having sushi for dinner and going to bed on time to get ready for my final day in London.

And so that was day 3. Not much to say unless you want the entire relay of my shopping experience. It’s just high street shopping, which is something you like or you don’t. I loved hitting up the vintage stores and markets in East London a few days ago, but also the boutique style stores in Covent Garden on Monday. Oxford Street has all major chains with some flagship stores (Primark & Topshop) which are huge you feel you’ll get lost.

Shopping high street stores is a beast on its own and my only advice is to go there early enough before major crowds show up. If you plan on shopping London’s Oxford Street I can highly recommend starting from Marble Arch and working your way eastward towards Tottenham Court Road. You’ll find yourself coming across Primark, Forever 21, H&M (several times), Dorothy Perkins (several times), Pull & Bear, Aldo, Topshop, Urban Outfitters, Super Drug, Boots and department stores such as Selfridges, Debenhams and House of Fraser. In case of a rainy day, you can also go to Westfield Shopping Mall at Shepherd’s Bush. It has most of the stores you will find on Oxford Street, but you won’t get wet.

Where do you prefer to shop: vintage stores, boutiques or the high street?

London 2012: Day 2

Day two in the English capital turned out to be a great day. The weather was amazing, with a slight breeze but plenty of sunshine making it perfect weather for walking. And walk I did. I set off from my hotel around 9 AM. My first stop was the Twinings tea shop on The Strand. It’s the only official Twinings-only shop in the world and they have many varieties that aren’t available in Holland. Argyll Square – View from my hotel room

Houses on Argyll Square

Tudor style houses near Chancery Lane

Clock of the Royal Court of Justice

After picking up nearly 10 different teas including a ‘vintage’ Darjeeling I walk about for a bit as I wanted to go to Temple Church but it wouldn’t open until an hour later. I found myself walking along the River Thames and found a bench bathing in sunlight. I sat there people and boat watching while listening to music and waited until I could go to Temple Church.

Chestnut tree (?) on Victoria Embankment

Fierce looking dragon near Middle Temple lane

I had heard that Temple Church would be difficult to find and while trying to find it, I figured why. The church is surrounded by other buildings that are part residential area and part offices. It is completely encased and I found it by walking into a narrow alleyway. If I hadn’t I would have most likely walked passed it. Temple Church is quite a strange place. It’s only a stone’s throw away from the heavy traffic of Fleet Street/ The Strand, but yet it’s so quiet and peaceful when you walk into the courtyard. It doesn’t even feel like you’re in the middle of London.

Temple Church

The interior of the Church

Effigies of the Knights Templar

Temple Church is famous for being round on one end rather than having the shape of a cross. In the round part of the church you will find the famous effigies of the Knights Templar as featured in The Da Vinci Code. The ones you see in the picture above are actually plaster casts of the original which are on the other end of the room. The casts were made during the Victorian era for the World Exhibition and placed in the church after the originals were badly damaged during The Blitz in WWII. The Church is still active which is why it is only open at specific times a day.

Original entrance door of Temple Church

The reason why Temple Church is hard to find: courtyards and narrow alleys

Fountain with National Gallery

After the Church I walked via The Strand to Trafalgar Square and had a pit stop at Starbucks and Superdrug where I picked up some make up by brands that aren’t available in The Netherlands. I then went to the National Gallery where I walked around for a few hours viewing mainly Impressionist and Dutch 17th century art. The museum houses art from the 1200s till 1900 and since it is huge I picked two categories to go and see because I didn’t want to spend such a lovely day indoors all day.

The National Gallery is definitely worth a visit. If art isn’t your thing you should just step inside to see the interior. It is hands down one of the most majestic buildings I’ve ever been in, without it being preposterous. It’s a beautifully designed museum, especially the room called Central Hall and the rooms directly adjacent to it. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures inside the museum so you’ll just have to believe me or go there yourself. The museum is free so just stop by and pop in to have a look whenever you’re near it.

After viewing Monets, Renoirs, Rembrandts and the like I felt hungry and had lunch outside in the sunshine with a delicious salad. With it only being 3 PM and having gone through my plans for the day already, I set off towards Leicester Square to see if I could catch a West End musical. Unfortunately nothing struck me as remotely interesting and there aren’t many movies out right now that I think are worth visiting so I decided to take a beeline toward Covent Garden. There I found the most amazing shoe store on Floral Street called United Nude. It was too pricey for me, but nevertheless these shoes are eyecandy in its purest form. The shoes seem to be a combination of design and architecture and seem impossible to walk in.

I had quite a browse around Coven Garden, bought a few things here and there and headed west again along Shaftesbury Avenue towards Piccadilly Circus. There’s a Waterstone’s nearby as well as an HMV (I like their book section there too) and plenty of food places. So I bought some books and quite exhausted found a table at TGI Friday’s as I was craving a burger. I finished my meal with an Oreo sundae icecream and took the Underground back to the hotel. My feet were killing me after walking around for nearly 12 hours, but that’s how I like London best: by foot.

Stay tuned for more blogs about my London trip later this week!

How is your week coming along?

London 2012: Day 1

On Sunday I left for London and here’s what I did on day one. I woke up early and left well on time to catch a train to the airport. I had checked whether trains were going and all seemed well, until I got to the train station. There had been a fire in the train station tunnel and no trains were going for a while. I got on the first train that left and after an uneventful journey I arrived at the airport well in time.

After a slightly delayed flight and another train into the city I arrived at my hotel around 1.30 PM. I freshened up and got reorganized in my room and set out into town right away. I took the underground to Liverpool Street Station where I grabbed a bite to eat and started walking towards Spital Fields Market and the Old Truman Brewery in East London (near Brick Lane). I knew there would be some markets there and Rough Trade East is located there as well so I was hoping to hit up all those places while walking around.

Livepool Street Station

Detail of Liverpool Street Station construction

The weather was luckily perfect for walking and browsing around. It got a bit cold at times, but plenty of the markets aren’t exactly outside. Most of the markets are in these big halls so there is a roof over your head and it only got cold when I got anywhere near the exit.

The first stop was Old Spital Fields Market. It is a market where you can buy some edgier items than at your average highstreet store. You could compare it to a festival fair or a goods market. I already knew it wouldn’t be packing many vintage stores as the vintage scene moved a bit further east, but I thought it would be worth having a browse. Around the market there are some other regular stores and there are also food stalls in case you get hungry. After buying the most delicious donut ever (covered in icing with coconut sprinkles and filled with jam)  and browsing all the stalls I set off towards Old Truman Brewery.

Quaint store near Spital Fields Market

East London is littered with old vacant factory buildings and it is here that you will find a lively community of vintage and edgy clothes, mingled with the occasional places selling music and food. Old Truman Brewery is one of those vacant factory buildings and on Sundays there is a large market with a good section of vintage to go around as well. It was quite busy, but the vibe was really cool. There was music playing and tons of young people going about trying on sunglasses or the odd sweater. Where Spital Fields was littered with tourists I felt Old Truman Brewery had much more of a local feel to it. Me likes!

I browsed around for a bit and bought a great navy blue woolen sweater. I then set out around the back of the store and quickly found what I came for: Rough Trade East. It was busy but it’s a cool place. If you like your music on vinyl then this is your place to be. Unfortunately for me, one album I really wanted had sold out and the other artist they had never heard of so I think I’ll have to hit up HMV afterall. It is still a cool store though with many in store live performances happening and they are stocking tons of artists and music styles that are not main stream so it was interesting to see.

Rough Trade East store front

Since I had now seen the things I came to see I decided to just walk around and see what I found. I quickly walked into Hanbury Street where I found some amazing vintage clothing shops. One was called Absolute Vintage which was exactly like what you would expect from a vintage store: walls lined with shoes, everything organized somewhat by color and that musty smell that comes with most vintage stores. I didn’t end up buying anything but it is still a great shop to have a look at when you’re there.

I then walked out and was handed a pamphlet for another vintage shop called Blitz. And OMG: it’s the BEST vintage shop ever. It is very well organized. It actually looks like a very comfortable store with soft lighting and all the items look pristine and the prices aren’t too high. They even had a sale going on in the downstairs area and I picked up a few things from there. I will make a shoplog once I get home so I will show you what I got later.

By this time I was quite hungry and I went into an Indian curry house and had real Indian curry for the first time in forever. Last time I had any Indian food was when I was at William and Mary and that was 2005. It was really good and after feeling full and content I headed back to my hotel and watched some TV before going to bed.

All in all, I think the first day was a good one. East London is definitely a place I can recommend to anyone interested in fashion/ clothes and just overall quirky items. The minute you cross Commercial Street the scene becomes more local and less touristy and that adds to a great vibe plus there are plenty of food places to keep you well fed.

NOTW: New Catrice polishes

The other day German budget make up brand Catrice revamped their collection with some new products. My favorite Catrice product must be their nail polishes. So when I found out about the new colors they were releasing I decided to have a look and see whether anything would be worth picking up. Unfortunately there are quite a few repromote/ rereleased polishes that I already have. That is why only three of the polishes caught my attention and I’ve swatched two of them for you.

The first one I would like to show you is this great shimmery dark teal color: Be Pool. Technically this isn’t even in their new collection as it’s not permanent. This color is a limited edition that comes with Catrice’s current limited Nymphelia collection. This is a great color in my opinion. It is just the right mixture of green and blue and I love how it is this dark shade. I haven’t seen many shades like this.

This color has been added to the permanent collection AND it is brand new too. It is called Welcome to Rosywood and it is a a dark creamy rose color void of shimmer. It has a hint of brown to it and thus makes a great dark neutral color with my skin tone.

Another thing Catrice did is change the brush to apply the nail polish with. It is mostly wider so you can cover more of your nail in one go. Since my nails aren’t big to begin with, it’s not the most ideal brush for me, but I managed to put it on without too many problems after all. I do have to be careful when putting it on though.

I really like both colors but I think the teal color is my favorite. I have one other polish that I will most likely show later this week.

On a personal note: London is fun! I will make sure there’s a post on my first day tomorrow. How have you been?

Fashion Wish List

So many cool trends have been happening lately and that is why my fashion wishlist has been growing quite a bit. Because of my London trip I’ve refrained from buying too many new things as I want to see what is available at stores that I cannot get to on a regular basis. I hope to find items that are just a tad different from what I would be able to find in my local shopping street. This goes mainly for clothes and accessories and here’s what I hope to find.

Source: weheartit.com

1. Basic colored shirts

Number one on the list are basic colored t-shirts/ tops. I have a ton of plain nude colored shirts, but no brights or pastel colored ones. I have plenty of colored shirts with prints on them, but NOTHING that is just a shirt without too much going on. Since colors are a must have this spring I’m hoping there will be enough to go around and find them.

2. Dark colored bulky sweater

I’m totally digging the trend of wearing tight (riding) pants with a bulky sweater on top. You know, the ones that look like your boyfriend might have lived in it for a while. I have light colored ones, but no dark one. I tend found this sweater by American Apparel and fell in love. It is pricey though so I will go check it out and if it really is as good as it looks on the picture I will just splurge on it.

3. Skater or shift dress

I would really like a skater or shift dress. I bought a skater dress the other day, but that one is a mustard yellow with dark blue polka dots. What I’m really missing in my wardrobe is a plain gray dress. What I am hoping is that I will find a gray skater dress or possible one in that great sea foam green color that I’ve been spotting everywhere lately.

4. Short necklaces

Short necklaces are making a huge comeback. I still have a few from way back in the day, but there are new styles out right now that I’m loving. Most of them are very plain and simple and look great paired with a button down shirt. I will definitely try to hit up Primark and Forever 21 and I think I will find something that suits me there.

5. Colored pants

Another thing I’d love to find are green or bright blue pants. I bought a pair of pink ones in January, but I remember owning a pair of green pants a few years ago and loving them to pieces. I had to throw them out because they were too big, so finding a new pair would be nice. So far, I haven’t found a pair of pants that has the right color, though I spotted a nice green colored pair of treggings at pieces the other day. I may just have to go with that if I can’t find it in London.

6. A red blazer

I love blazers but I’m very picky when it comes to them. I’ve been trying to find a red blazer for over a year now, but have yet to find the perfect one. There is always something that wrong: wrong cut, wrong shade, or it’s too tight around my shoulders. I know it’s a long shot but I hope to finally find a comfy red blazer that doesn’t make me look pasty.

7. Some items for DIY projects

I’ve found so many great DIY clothing tutorials on Youtube and I’m dying to try my hand at a few. However, I don’t want to risk ruining a perfectly fine brand new shirt. That is why I really want to go to Primark. As their stuff is cheap it won’t have cost me tons when things go bad. It totally depends on what I’ll find what I’ll be able to do with it and I will let you know if it all worked out and make some posts on the DIY stuff when I get to it.

What’s on your fashion wishlist?

Plans for my London trip

Yeah baby! When you’re reading this, the count down is seriously on: in little over 24 hours I will be hitting up good ol’ London town once more. I will only be gone for a few days, but since this is the 4th year in a row I’m going there, I think that is plenty to get around. I do have a few things I want to do. Some are completely new, others aren’t, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be fun. Care to know what I’ll be up to (and will most definitely write blogs about)? Then keep on reading!

Houses of Parliament w/ Big Ben in 2010

First of all this will be the first time in a long time of going to London when it’s not spring or summer time. The weather will therefore be an interesting factor on this trip. The forecasts so far are pretty good, with major rain not coming in until Wednesday which is when I’ll be leaving. The rest of my stay will see some scattered showers, but overall it should be dry and sunny for most of it. With London you can never tell though. I’ll just bring an umbrella and make the best of it.

My actual plans involve some of the ideas I had when I first booked the trip. I have plans for hitting up some museums as well as some shopping and seeing a musical. I have never been to the National Gallery so I’ll be going there. It’s still only February so I’m thinking I’ll be safer inside than outside to begin with. I’m also going to visit Temple Church. It is a place with very limited opening hours and needs planning ahead of time. I have looked up all information I need on their website, so I should be good and will not end up standing there when it’s closed.

I will also go to a part of the city I have never been to before: East London. The Brick Lane area to be specific. It’s this very hip and happening place (apparently) ever since artists such as Damien Hirst and his colleagues started setting up shop in the area. Rough Trade has a record store there (great resource for indie music) and also located in the area is Spital Fields Market which is a good place for shopping vintage clothes and accessories. I think it will be an interesting part of London to visit as it borders onto the borough where many Bengali immigrants live so there will be plenty of curry/ food places around methinks.

A museum that I plan to revisit is the British Museum. I went there way back when in 2004. At the time though I was sick and air conditioning made everything worse, so I only stayed inside for less than an hour and saw nothing but the Egypt section. Since the British Museum is huge, I definitely plan on devoting most of one of my days to it, depending on how interesting it is and which exhibitions they have. In the worst case I will just wander about for hours looking at all the prettiness of ancient cultures and then some.

Naturally I will also take out time to go shopping. I’m thinking of just going to Oxford Street and Covent Garden as I know from experience those places have everything I’m looking for. There’s the Primark flagship store, Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, Selfridges, TopShop and many more to keep me entertained. I’ll be looking mostly for clothes this time round and there are a few specific items that I hope to find while I’m there. Another shop I will definitely visit is the Twinings shop on The Strand. They sell all kinds of different teas not available in The Netherlands and to top things off I received an email saying they have added new green teas to their selection. I’m curious to try those.

So there you have it: my London plans. I’m just going to see how everything works out. If the weather is nice I will definitely spend a lot of time just wandering about and popping in and out of places as I’m walking around. These plans are by no means set in stone, neither are they intended to fill up my entire day in one go and I’m all for unintentional and spontaneous visits to places. I may or may not go see a West End musical or maybe I’ll just go and see a movie. Who knows! I’m curious to see what my hotel will be like. It does come with free Wifi so I hope to keep this blog going live from London. In any case I know I’ll have a blast.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Organise your life: Moleskin agendas

By now I guess it’s clear to everyone that I lead a pretty busy life. Between writing blogs I work in education 3-4 days a week and I am enrolled as a full time student on top of dance classes, gym workouts and social activities. To keep track of it all, I make sure to keep an agenda and I have found the perfect one that can handle listing all different occasions without it becoming a mess: the Moleskin Weekly Notebook.

As you can see I have two: a red one and a black one. Both have a hard cover and one is a 12 month agenda, while the other covers 18 months. I just started using the red one by the way. The black one used to be my agenda. The reason why this agenda in particular is handy is because it comes with the days of the week on the left and a page to take notes on the right. Like so:

Notice how there is a lot of space for writing things down. What I usually do is write my appointments on the left page and my time table/ schedule on the right. I also use it to write to do lists and sometime add post its whenever I shouldn’t forget something that has nothing to do with work or appointments. So after a while the pages become something like this:

I will spare you the craziest weeks that are on these pages, but this gives you a rough idea of what I do with them. Social appointments are also listed and I just stick those in with my regular appointments. I try to keep them as neat as I can, but that doesn’t always work out, as you can see in the picture below.

I had to use arrows and more than one page several times during the week. But still I think it works. Another very handy thing these planners come with are a couple of pages for note taking in the back and in the front you will find your regular agenda stuff: calendars, a ruler, time differences, measurements etc.

What makes Moleskin planners extra handy is that they come with a flap in the back that holds another customizable notebook or an address book. The best part is that these extras can be removed from the planner and reused whenever you buy a new one because they are detachable. Here’s the customizable notebook and below you can see the address book.

Now how handy is that?! I know for a fact that this is the one thing that ensures my ability to keep track of what it is that I’m doing. It fits EVERYTHING I have to write down: from to do lists to exams, from time tables to appointments, to meetings, social events and vacations. I keep my entire life in these things and can’t live without it. Before I struggled with separate calendars or agendas: one for work and one for my social life, but by adding school into the mix it just wasn’t going to work anymore.

Conclusion: These aren’t the cheapest agendas, but they certainly do what they should do.

How do you keep track of your life?

Make up collection: Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

It’s here. It’s finally here! The other week the Urban Decay Naked 2 eyeshadow palette was introduced to the Dutch market without as much as a whisper. No one knew when or even if it would show up in our tiny country and then suddenly it did. So when I went to The Hague last week, I decided to check the Sephora there to see whether they had it stocked and they did. Since my plan was to pick it up in the UK next week, I thought: why not buy it right now as I’m going to spend the money anyway. This is what the palette looks like:

As you can see the palette comes with a mini lipgloss which I have yet to try and a double ended synthetic brush. The brush isn’t ideal when you store brushes the way I do, but I think it will be ideal to take with me when traveling because you get two brushes in one go. Urban Decay brushes are good brushes. I have one brush that came with the original Naked palette and love that so I’m sure these will work fine as well. Let’s move on to the colors shall we?

Just like in the original Naked palette there aren’t many matte shades, but the prettiness of the colors make up for that. One thing that immediately stands out is the fact that the colors are more cooler toned than the original palette and there are also fewer darker colors. That suits me just fine as I never use very dark colors for my eyelooks as it can make my eye sockets look quite dead.

So far I have used the palette a number of times to try out some combinations. I tried out a taupy-brown look using tease, suspect and busted and I tried a gray look with verve, pistol and blackout. One thing I love about this palette is that it has colors with a purple undertone and that it comes with some more taupes and grays. Those are my favorite colors for creating looks and so I really do think that this palette is a good addition to the original Naked palette which was more brown/ bronzy oriented. Now on to close ups and swatches and what the colors look like in my opinion:

From left to right:

• Foxy: matte, soft yellow shade which you can barely see against my skin. Great as a highlight on your brow bone.
• Half baked: already part of the first Naked palette AND the Sustainable palette. Great golden brown shade for all over the lid or to add some shine in the middle of your eyelid.
• Booty call: shimmery cream colored highlighter.
• Chopper: coppery color with a pink/ rose undertone. This looks best all over your lid or on your lower lash line.
• Tease: matte soft brown color with a mauve undertone. Can be worn as an all over lid color or soft crease color.
• Snakebite: dark brown with golden shimmer. Good crease color or for your lower lashline. Can also be used to create a subtle smokey eye.

From left to right:

• Suspect: shimmery taupe/brown color. Again a solid all over lid color, but I also like this on my lower lash line or in the crease with very subtle looks.
• Pistol: shimmery silver gray color. I wore this as a crease color the other day, but would also work on the lower lash line or all over the lid.
• Verve: light gray color with lots of shimmer. This is quite possibly my favorite shade in the palette. Again: an all over lid color or for the lower lash line.
• YDK: shimmery rose gold color. Also featured in the Sustainable palette. I would preferably wear this all over the lid.
• Busted: dark brown color with a dark brown undertone and some shimmer to it. Good for creating a crease, outlining your outer V area and dark smokey looks.
• Black out: also a great crease color as it is a matte black without any shimmer. Best color in the palette for a true smokey eye. Also feature in the Urban Decay 15th Anniversary palette.

As you can see from the swatches, the pigmentation is amazing, just like with other Urban Decay palettes. I’m thinking that Urban Decay is quickly becoming my favorite eyeshadow brand as their eyeshadow palettes are just the best. This is now my 5th Urban Decay eyeshadow palette and not a single one of them has let me down so far. The eyeshadows are smooth without being powdery and especially in this palette the shadows do not suffer from a tremendous amount of fall out.

I already own the original Naked palette too and was skeptical as to whether I would ‘need’ this one as well. After seeing some reviews and comparisons though, I knew that it was different from the first one and since this girl loves her wearable nude shades of eyecolor I thought it would still make a good addition to my make up collection. I will show you my original Naked palette some time in the future as part of my make up collection series. For good comparisons of the original Naked palette and the Naked 2 palette I would like to refer you to this website (Dutch), or you can watch this video (English).

What are your favorite types of eye shadow to wear? Nude colors like I do, or do you prefer a pop of color?

Cool Band: The Joy Formidable

Just the other day I realized how I have a few songs by The Joy Formidable floating around some of my playlists and then I noticed how I like every single one of those songs. That is why I would like to introduce you to: The Joy Formidable.

Source

The Joy Formidable are by no means a new band. I have heard their name buzzing around for a while and they were featured on last year’s SXSW festival. Their biggest claim to fame so far: a track on the Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1 soundtrack. It is easily my favorite song on that entire soundtrack and then I figured out that I liked many more of their songs.

The Joy Formidable – End Tapes:

They released their first album The Big Roar last year in 2011 and if I have to describe their sound it’s somewhere between indierock with a dose of pop, catchy lyrics and some dark and dreamy qualities to it. I have especially been enjoying a song called Cradle in the Fang Island Remix which goes like this:

The Joy Formidable – Cradle (Fang Island Remix):

Two other songs I like are Whirring and Austere:

By now I am very curious to hear their first album and maybe I will pick it up when I’m in London next week. I like the catchy lyrics and overall vibe of the songs listed in this post so I’m thinking I will dig the album too.

What do you think of The Joy Formidable?

Paper books vs ebooks

The other day I read an article (in Dutch) where someone contested the idea of the continuous existence of actual books made out of paper and a cover. He argued that eBooks will soon take over. Many newspapers and magazines are already disappearing and he claimed that it was just a matter of time until real books follow suit. Call me a puritan, a romantic or plain stupid, but I don’t think regular books will fade into oblivion any time soon. Let’s make a comparison between a real book and an eBook and find out why.

Source: weheartit.com

Let’s first have a look at the eBook. The eBook is light weight and easy to carry around. You can easily download your books onto the device and it will carry multiple books at the same time. If books predate 1900 you can get them for free and it apparently provides a similar reading experience overall to a regular book.

Regular books, with real pages to turn, have many qualities going for them though. First of all: the smell of books. If you like books you’ll know what you mean. Whether it’s new, second hand, a text book for your studies or a novel you pick up for fun: real books have this smell to them that your Kindle or w/e eBook reader you use will never have. Of course if you don’t like a bookish smell then eBooks are the way to go.

A paper book will give you a direct indication of how much you still have to read until you finish it. The weight and thickness of the book make for a certain anticipation, at least to me, as to how much time it will take to read and this adds to the excitement (or not if it’s an 800 page book and you have to read it within one week). It’s the thrill of turning a page and you know the book is good if you can’t stop reading want to go faster and faster.

I usually always browse through a book before reading it, and even continue to do so as I’m reading it, to see how the chapters are divided up or how many pages I have left before the chapter finishes. I’m sure you can do the same thing with an eBook, but I highly expect it to be less convenient. It’s again, the thrill, the anticipation, the excitement of coming closer to your goal: finishing the book and the satisfaction when you actually do so.

Another thing real books have going for them is the fact that they are printed on paper. I’m reading texts from a screen all day long already. I am hardly convinced that reading books from a screen is a good thing to do. I, for one, find reading from actual paper easier to do (especially with text books) as it is less tiring and makes for easy note taking and highlighting. I know eBook readers have a special lay out that makes it easier to read from a screen, but I still think that after a long day or purely for relaxation, your best bet is to pick up an actual book.

Finally I really like holding on to the things I pay for. When I use cold hard cash to buy something I also want to be able to hold it in my hands. That’s how you know you got your money’s worth in my opinion. One reason why I don’t like paying for any digital contents just yet, is because you’re not given anything tangible in return and lose all rights to the content even when you lose it due to a computer crash. When I buy a real book or a CD I will at least know it is still there unless my house burns down. The chance of a house burning down over a computer crash is slightly less likely to happen though.

Now, I don’t have any experience with eBooks on eReaders as I don’t have one. They look very convenient and I think if you are one of those people who reads multiple books at the same time it may be something to try out. I stick to one book at the time though and love all of the above about reading books in general. I guess it depends on how you read a book whether eBooks are for you. I have been tempted to look into eReaders and eBooks, but I have found it inconvenient, expensive (eBooks are sometimes more expensive than paper editions) and it is yet another device I would have to carry around that uses batteries and needs power. At least you can still read an actual book when there’s a power outage and that’s why I think real books are here to stay.

Which do you prefer? Real books or eBooks? Why?