Print or iPad?

With graduation on the horizon, a number of questions are burning and a subsequent number of decisions will soon need to be made.  One such decision I have already begun to probe is in what form will an English major graduate like myself continue her reading.

As I have maneuvered through my college courses , I have made myself very familiar with the pros and cons to reading both printed texts and texts on an iPad.  Now, considering my future financial insecurity, I realize the days are numbered where I have the luxury of utilizing both forms of text.

In line with nearly every print advocate, I find the physical tangibility of a text enjoyable and comforting.  Additionally, through my studies it has been essential to be equipped with a physical copy of a text to highlight, underline, and annotate.  Yet, next year, I do not see myself writing many notes in the columns to bring up during class discussion or see the need to mark important quotes that I will not be later incorporating into a paper.  Plus,  printed texts are just more expensive.

For me, all signs point to the iPad.  Not only is it just one, small device equipped with an endless library of texts, it can do things a printed text simply cannot; it can read to me , it can look up a word I am not familiar with, and if I do want to mark a page that I find particularly interesting, it allows me to do that as well.  It seems that while nostalgia may tempt me to hold on to the printed text, the iPad is the answer for now.