Gratuitous photo, in case, you know, you don't know what it is..(?)
In the past year and a half that I have owned the Kindle, I am ashamed to say that I only have about 10 books on it.
That's not to say that I haven't read all that much lately, because I absolutely have. It's just that part of me is apparently really attached to books.. holding them, creasing the pages, the artwork on the cover.. I don't know, I never really thought I'd care that much, to be honest. Until I got the Kindle and made all these realizations.
At first, I justified it to myself by saying that I would only buy real books "if they are by one of my favorite authors" or "if I just know I'm going to like the book". Not sure how I determined the latter part of my reasoning, but whatever. It made sense to me.
Then I started to just keep buying real books. I like real books. I like that I can fill up our bookshelves with them, and that I can trade books with my friends to read. And many times, the actual book is only about $1 - $2 more expensive than buying it for the Kindle, which is totally worth the extra money to me.
Not my bookshelf. But it would be awesome if it was.
However, the size and weight of the Kindle can't be beat - you can be toting around and reading a monster sized book and your bag will be none the heavier if you had it on the Kindle.
This is one of my all time favorite books that I've read three times already... it's 10000000x better than the Twilight series.
But it's also 620 pages and almost 2 pounds. I do not have it for the Kindle.
You can also get fun covers for your Kindle, and apparently a whole assortment of games, including crosswords! Scot also really, really appreciates it when I use it, as opposed to buying more books. Go figure.
So I'm trying to make more of an effort to use my Kindle more and buy real books less. I'm pretty proud of myself right now, actually.. I was at the bookstore yesterday and found Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi, a must-read on my list right now, and as I was looking at the gorgeous cover and flipping through the crisp pages, I realized that it was $25.99, or about $19 after my membership discount, plus tax. I quickly whipped out my phone to see what Amazon's price was, and they listed it at $12. That's a $7 difference.. that's lunch! So I fully intend on buying it for my Kindle later today.
Of course there are some things that the Kindle just isn't practical for, such as the Dummies books I got for my camera (although they are available). Books with a lot of footnotes also tend to be issues, because you have to scroll through the page to highlight and click on the little number, which takes you to a page with the footnote, and then you have to return to where you were reading.. in other words, don't buy a Jen Lancaster book for your Kindle. But since she's a favorite author AND I just know I'll love all her books, I own all her stuff in hard copies. But for normal, reading books (aka, no pictures or footnotes).. it really is a wonderful device.
I still love book-books, though.
What are you thoughts on this? Do you prefer real books or the electronic version?
4 comments:
Sorry trees and environment I'm ALL about real books I dream of having a big huge library filled with books I've read. I'm actually terrified that books will expire and it'll be like illegal to have paper or something. That terrifies me. I hate reading off of a screen. I do it all day long, when I read a book I just want to read the pages not a screen some more. I get the being environmentally friendly is important... but SORRY not going to happen with my books.
I love reading and looking and seeing in a quantifiable way how much I have left not how much scrolling I have left to do.
Sorry that was definitely a rant!
I have a Nook and I don't even use it. I liek my real books too. I read an article the other day about what babies born this year won't see and books was on the list. Along with CD's and other stuff. But it would really make me sad if books weren't around.
I got my Kindle in October and have read three books on it, I'm glad you recommend the Host! I'll have to download it!
My thoughts: I love the Kindle for lightness, travel size and mobile downloading. If I'm on vacation - I can get a new book ON the beach. Perfect.
As far as REAL books go, my favorite authors will still hold a place on my bookshelf. Something about having a collection in a home office is important to me.
I'm a real book devotee!!!
And I second The Host - SUCH a great book. Nothing like Twilight, etc.
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