For me it depends on the time and my work schedule; but i like both

It depends. On scientific question I much more prefer essays to books, because they usually focus on a very special aspects, whilst books always contain a lot of gernal information I already know, also books take longer to be written and published, which make essays my go-to for very recent research results.

As for non-scientific literature I usually prefer books over short-stories. I am a fast and sometimes binge-reader and short-stories Im far too quickly done with. I also enjoy consicse descriptions of situations and scenery and character-development far too much for short-stories, where those aspects have to fall short.