Before starting this, I should state that I own a Kindle. So this isn’t so much a ‘should I buy a Kindle’ post as a ‘This is how I justified buying a Kindle’ (without actually going into how I paid for it, which was a combination of gift cards and a willful ignorance of my bank balance).
First, let me say that I have not totally lived up to these initial reasons. But I believed them at the time.
1. When I travel and inevitably fill my suitcase with actually unnecessary but what I at the time term 'just in case' items, a Kindle would be better to have and slip into my purse than five books, which I won't have room for.
2. I won't need to buy books, because they have classics for free. So now instead of buying some ratty paperback Dickens at a used bookstore which I wouldn't want to keep anyway, I can just have it on my thin, super-light Kindle, AND bonus, no big heavy books taking up valuable shelf space.
How this has actually played out is I've bought a number of eBooks, some while drunk ('cause bringin' out the Kindle at a bar's how a good time turns into a great time), and I tend to leave it at my apartment when I travel, because I have other books I'm reading that I got from the library and don't want to buy electronic copies of.
BUT, despite all this, I do not regret my purchase. Why? Because it leaves me more options. What I find ridiculous are the people who say asshole things like "Oh, I'm just too in love with paper to ever read an eBook." Hey, screw you. Way to NOT make life easier. People with eReaders don't throw out all their regular books when they get them, nor do they stop buying them. It's just another way of reading. Anyone who tries to say that not reading eBooks means they love reading more than someone who does, that person sucks. Just cut them out of your select circle. You don't need to deal with them and their suckiness.
In conclusion, I love my Kindle because it's another shiny toy in my ever-increasing arsenal of shiny toys, and people who hate on it suck.
I love this, and I love that you have a blog.
ReplyDeleteGASP. You have a blog too! *following*
ReplyDeleteYeaaaah kindle! Basically how it's worked out for me is that I buy my academic and spiritual books in paper, and all the fiction by Kindle. Whereas I used to get fiction from the library, so look, I'm supporting the economy. AND I've actually read three mainstream books written in the last 10 years since getting the Kindle, so. The distinction in practice is that books I would want to read in a non-linear way, have on display, write notes in, and/or refer to later are the ones I buy in paper, and the ones I just want to read through once I buy on Kindle. The Kindle really improves that latter experience.
ReplyDeletePlease be listing the mainstream books you've read, madam.
ReplyDeleteUh, that Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society book, which I didn't like. Byatt - The Matisse Stories. And Bryson - At Home, which technically I'm only partway through.
ReplyDeleteI have heard of two of those. I'm starting to think the only Byatt I'll ever like is Possession.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree that screw them - the people who imply that they are "real" readers versus the people who read ebooks.
ReplyDelete