Wednesday, September 30, 2009

To Kindle or Not to Kindle

It is no secret that I love to read. I've talked about my addiction to fiction on the pages of this blog before. How I crave a good book where I can get lost in the story. How I will read anything I can get my hands on. My biggest dilemma for my upcoming vacation is which books from my teetering pile should I bring with me.

I also love gadgets. Things with buttons. As a kid I would walk through the aisles of the electronics departments pressing buttons on all the phones, stereos and TV's. I love my IPod, bluetooth, Wii, cell phone, even my electric can opener (It's the gizmo and it's pretty cool).

So as a book and gadget lover, I'm intrigued by the Kindle.


I don't know much about it, and don't really know anyone who has one. On one hand, I think it would be pretty cool to always have a book available and to be able to download anything I want to read. On the other hand, I will miss some of the things that I love about reading.

I love books. In college I used to work at Borders and most of my paycheck went back to the store. I love the size of books (quality paperback is my favorite medium). I love the smell and feel of books. I especially love library books that have the plastic covers on them. Something about the crinkle reminds me of the school librarian reading to us; every so often turning it to show us the pictures. I would miss the joy of going to the bookstore. Searching the stacks for hours, reading covers, deciding on the right ones.

So my questions to you are: Would you get a Kindle? Do you know anyone that has one and do they like it?

9 comments:

Shannon said...

I don't know anyone who has a Kindle. Sometimes I think I'd like one, too. I'm sure they're great to travel with. But, like you... I love the look and feel of brand-new books! The unbroken spine, the untouched pages!

Adam said...

Don't do it.

A) No physical copy means that if you lose the hard drive, or delete the file the book is gone. (I suppose you could print the whole thing out, but that'd be expensive too.)

B) Think of the books you can buy with the money you wasted on the Kindle® and the Kindle® books.

Jen said...

I'm taking a reading theory class for grad school and my professor just talked about this last night. She thinks that books will be like old albums/records in our lifetime. She thinks everything will go digital and that libraries, book stores, etc.. will eventually be a thing of the past. I really hope she is wrong.

Melanie Sheridan said...

I'd totally get one. I love having a book in my hands but for travel, waiting at the doctor, for magazines and newspapers, this would be fab.

PS - I'm composing a post for you right now!

Misti said...

hmmmm. I think I would like to have this for traveling, but my sisters and I read books and pass them on to each other. I don't know how that would work out with this thing.

JackeeG4glamorous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JackeeG4glamorous said...

I saw someone reading a Kindle book in the airport and I kept waiting for her to turn the page, which equals "scroll down". It looked uncomfortable to hold and see. (at least for me) Unless you have tons of money to waste, I'd say don't do it. Too new, too easy to be obsolete in a few years.

Robin said...

My hubby really wanted a digital reader for travel (better than carrying a heavy stack of books!) and he got the Sony Reader over the Kindle. He didn't want to be committed to Amazon for everything he wanted to read and the Sony accepts books from e-bookstores, the library (!) and also other media types, he keeps our recipes in it, etc. I have used it for a few library books and it was pretty cool and amazing for travel, but yeah, I am old fashioned, and I love the real thing!

Stefanie said...

As a kinesthetic reader - I like to write in my books. And I flip back and forth between pages if I find inconsistencies. I also like to feel/see where I am in a book - and the digital realm loses all of those physical aspects. Although I'd like to try a kindle, I never have, it does seem to have some cool benefits. I hope that professor is wrong about the fate of printed books. (btw - look at the rise in vinyl record sales) Now my kids have 2 versions of textbooks - printed and online. I love them both. I like the animations and interactive stuff online, but I can't live without just going to the printed index to find something - or getting the big picture from skimming through the table of contents and chapters - that cannot be done digitally (right now anyway).