There was a time when books used to be our secondary source of information, the primary course of information being newspaper, radio and television.  With the advent of Internet and search engines almost every information is available to us from the comfort of our chairs.  We get the information faster in a a matter of few seconds.  The information is available to us free of cost as most people access the Internet from their workplaces. The information can either be read directly through the computer monitor or read at our convenience through print outs in convenient fonts.

Books on the contrary are costlier as there is a price attached to every book.  Another disadvantage is a person has to generate time to go to a book stall and search for the book.  If a book stall is located a few kilometers away from a persons place then there is a additional cost in the form of conveyance to reach there by hiring a auto or charges incurred through consumption of petrol if you are travelling in your own vehicles.. Unlike in Internet wherein we get up to date information, books due to various constraints can never be updated instantaneously.

Inspite of being in such a disadvantageous position, books still are preferable over Internet print outs.  The advantage with books is that the size of books are smaller as the papers are smaller and therefore storage and retrieval  becomes very easier.  Even though fonts are smaller in books it is pleasing to the eye and there is no strain whatsoever on the eye.  Reading data on Internet is very tedious while print outs though are not that tedious still are uncomfortable to the eye even with the best available fonts.  Another huge advantage with a book is that is easy to preserve it since the size of a book invariably is much smaller to of numerous prints clubbed together.  Over a longer period of time books look far less dirtier when compared to print outs.  Print outs look dirty after a few days whereas books look relatively fresh even after many years.

If one needs data to be stored for a longer period of time then purchase of books is the best option.

Regards

Satish