Do you prefer books or videos

I am returning to chess after some time and I am wondering if it would be wiser to invest some money into books or to buy some videos.

If someone has any recommendations then I would be glad to receive them.

I like opening books as they are well organized and I can put them into Lichess to reference back to whenever I need to. Like my Queen's Gambit study where if I forget the theory and/or want to see what to see how the opening is played, I have something to look at instead of rewatching a video or book. Before you buy any books, check this site out. The books are oldish but they have some quality even if some can be a little outdated

I prefer books. You can study at your own pace, stop whenever you want and think about what you are learning. You can play out the moves on your chess board, actually picking up the pieces and moving them.

I dislike staring at a screen all day and all evening.

Videos are nice enough, but I prefer books myself. I use 2 boards while studying. The first is set up to the books image and is solely for the main line. As the moves progress, and secondary lines  are introduced, then the second  board is set up to the current position matching the mainline board and played out. Lately I have started to type in the game the studies are taken from on the computer. IE: Lasker vs Nunn 1903. This saves some time setting up and I can just click both seeing the moves, and follow along in the book. I still use a board for secondary lines.

Apps. Plenty of apps for everything related to chess. Endgames Tactics Openings Strategies etc etc.

Books are best for long term investment and you get a library after awhile.

Books, or text instruction on the screen, are infinitely better than videos. The information density of a video is low.  Furthermore most people can process text twice as fast as they comprehend the spoken word.

You-Tube type videos, and even some commercial ones, have a lot of fluff. Its annoying listening to promotional material before one gets into the meat.

Of course you have to listen to the video. This creates many problems. The speakers on my laptop are tiny & terrible. We all have dialects and accents. It's miserable if the presenters is not of your own. The sound may disturb others nearby.

Two years ago I purchased a DVD from a well-known company. I like to review chess in the evening sitting near my wife. She's listening to the TV. I bought headphones. One more thing I have to store & plug in. Using the DVD involved constant straining to understand and rewinding. I got about half way through, put it back in it's case and will never use it again. 

Books can be kept for decades, and gotten out & opened rapidly without plugging anything in. They do not disturb anyone, can be shared with friends and easily taken on trips. I shipped a carton of my chess books to my grandsons.

The proliferation of videos is disturbing. Is this on offshoot of the craze for video games ? Are the young becoming illiterate ? Unfortunately many of the bloggers on chess.com present only a video. 

Vids 

It depends on your study goal. If you want a quick intro to an area of the game, videos are better. They'll get you some basic information faster and help you get started. But eventually you'll want to read a book to go "all in" on really learning the nitty gritty details, which will take much longer but get you more detail.

Use both, just be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of both mediums.

One bad thing about videos is understanding the speaker. If you watch some of the lessons on chess.com, some of these guys have very thick accents and they stop every second to say "uh".

Good news is if you want to fall asleep, watch Kieton Kiewra videos on chess.com or youtube

Both books and videos have their benefits, but it depends on how you learn best.

[Removed: Misleading Link] ~W