When I first bought the Kindle, three years ago, I was very hesitant. I mean, what if I couldn’t stand reading on it? I read every day - it’s more like an addiction than anything else.
Still, I bought it chiefly for the space-saving factor.
Now I strictly only buy four books a month on it. So sometimes if the books are particularly good, I read them all fast and then run out in the middle of the month. That happened this month.
The other day I went over to the library to find some books to get me through the rest of the month. I borrowed about six books.
And I find I don’t like reading real books as much anymore.
For one thing they’re all separate. So I have to find each one, and I usually read a couple of them concurrently.
The hardcovers are heavy and unwieldy.
The paperbacks are inconvenient - they don’t hold the place very easily and are inclined to close at a moment’s notice, losing your page.
I have to find something to mark my page in them. The kindle just does it automatically. And if I want to refer back to the previous page, I just can’t mark the page with my Kindle bookmark.
And of course the reading. I can use the backlight on the case. The reading is comfortable and I don’t have to contend with teeny tiny little font.
I feel like, I don’t know, a horrible class traitor or something, to not like dead-tree books as much anymore. I just wish they had a full colour e-reader now.
I can certainly see the appeal of a kindle. It would be nice to have a whole collection of books right there in my hands.
But I also find an appeal in having books as separate items. I wouldn’t want to have all my books in a kindle. I don’t like having all my metaphorical eggs in one basket; I want to have some books next to my bed and some books in the bathroom and some books in my car. I wouldn’t want to be dependent on having my kindle in hand anytime I might want to read.
I’m not totally sold on the physical design of the kindle either.
Yeah, it took me a while to come around on my Kindle (2nd gen international,) but I’m feeling the love now. I still love reading print books, but if it isn’t a particular souvenir or something I’m looking to get signed, I’d check for a Kindle version before buying a new print book. I also like to read on the Kindle better than reading on the computer for something long, even if it’s a pain to convert sometimes. (No, Amazon, just because that was in Courier font doesn’t mean I want fixed line breaks there. Listen, I’ll just switch it to Times New Roman and we can try again - kay?)
I don’t even have an actual Kindle, but I have the Kindle app on my phone and I store about 50 books on that phone. Since I always have my phone with me, I always have a bunch of books handy to read whenever I am stuck waiting somewhere.
I use the Kindle app on my iPad. It’s sort of annoying to me to hold an iPad for reading. and I do like having the physical books. But it is nice to have a bunch of stuff on there that I can access like that. Or even better, that I can go and buy online with my iPad and read immediately.
I like it better too, but I didn’t fall in love until I got the Kindle Fire, which prompted me to hook up a wireless connection. Before that, it was a PITA to download to the old non-WiFi Kindle. Now it’s a snap. It’s almost too easy, and I’ve had to watch my spending. So far, I’ve only bought three books, but I’ve downloaded dozens of free ones.
Now I can lay in bed, connect wirelessly, read free samples (some of them several chapters so I really get a good taste), and if I want to keep reading, I can buy the book from my bed!
I love picking up the Kindle and it’s right there where I left off in the book. I love the light weight of the old Kindle – the Fire, not so much.
I love that my books are on both Kindles, so if I want to loan one to my daughter, I can do that. We could be reading the same thing at the same time. How fun!
If I could afford it, I’d never buy a “real” book again. Kindle books are still pricey compared to used books.
The flip happened to me maybe 6-8 months ago. I can’t say I hate reading “real” books, and I do read a lot of them because I still go to the library a lot, but if I were suddenly rich, I’d buy every book I wanted on the Kindle instead of using the library.
It took a while for me, too - I’ve had Kindles since the original version came out.
I like it better because of all the reasons you mention, especially the form factor. One thing that can make me spend money on a book over getting it from the library is if it’s a big fat heavy book. The older I get, the more it seems to hurt my hands/wrists to hold a big book up during long reading sessions.
It has put a little hitch in Mr. Athena’s gift-giving. It’s not nearly as impressive to get a whole stack of books on the Kindle as it is to get a BIG BOX of books all wrapped up nice.
Mine’s a Nook and not a Kindle, but yeah, absolutely. I love that thing and I have no intention of going back to paper books. If I can’t get it on Ebook, I usually won’t get it.
Worst part is, I’m a writer! Still, there it is. I freaking LOVE having my whole collection of 500+ books in my purse and with me at all times.
I’ve loved books since I was a kid. I never thought I’d like a Kindle, and looked at the idea with scorn. Then my sister gifted me the Kindle 2. I don’t even feel ashamed to say that I like it much better than dead tree books. Besides all the advantages you guys have mentioned, there is one thing that puts the Kindle well beyond the reach of a regular book - the reading experience while lying down. No need to uncomfortably hold one end of the book up. No need to shift positions each time a page needs turning. No awkward fumbling to discover what book holding/curling up position is best for each new size of book. Lying down and reading. The Kindle. Just. Rocks it.
Of course there’s the “new books anywhere” thing which isn’t half bad either…
I was not sold on Kindle - until I got one. Now I only read books on Kindle. When I am in my library, I look around and sadly think that this is it, and the collection is not going to get any bigger.
Hi, my name is Politzania and I’m a Kindle/ebook reader convert… Hi Politzania…
Well - not totally - I still own bunches of dead tree books & check them out from the library as well - but the Indiana Digital Media library consortium is pretty darned cool - they offer both e-books (Kindle & EPUB) and audiobooks - even tho they don’t completely match my tastes in material, I’m still getting more than my tax dollars worth.
Another awesome thing with the Kindle (and I assume other e-readers) is the highlighting feature - I’m an inveterate underliner/dogear-er, but always felt a bit bad about marking up my books …and of course, you can’t do that w/ library books! :eek: Now I can just swipe across a phrase, sentence or paragraph and mark it as a highlight or add a note - and the Kindle website saves them for me! (Yes, even for library books!)
Blech, I’m a no-highlight person. If someone writes in a book, it’s ruined for me, Kindle or dead-tree. Though of course, the Kindle has the advantage in that you can just turn 'em off.
But I do very much love the Kindle’s look up features. Unfamiliar word? Click on it, there’s the definition. Curious about some reference in the book? The wiki entry is 2 clicks away. I really miss these features when reading dead-tree books.
Let’s see…I’ve bought 6 Kindles so far, and will be buying another 5 of them in a month or so.* Handy little suckers. I live with my DX. Since I don’t have to worry about pocketing it, the larger size makes it more like reading a hardback. Totally a convert, even though I still own a few thousand hardbacks.
They are the absolute best thing that has ever happened to high school extemporaneous speaking. We used to have to cut and file articles on every subject imaginable, and haul around tubs of them to tournaments. Now, everything is electronic, every speaker has their own set of every article cut, and the search function makes finding the information within the piece a snap. With the extended battery life, we don’t have to worry about charging them over a long weekend either.
I got a Sony eReader as a bonus for signing up for a Sony credit card. I wasn’t sure how I’d like it, but I use it a lot. I mostly get ebooks from Project Gutenberg and a few from the library. It’s nice and lightweight and it fits in my pants pocket so I take it with me everywhere. It’s way more comfortable for reading one-handed as well (e.g. while standing on the subway). The only time I use dead tree books nowadays is if I go to the pool, where I’m afraid it might get stolen or damaged by water.
I rarely use the wifi, but the built in dictionaries are a godsend.
I don’t buy text only books in physical form since getting the kindle. Books with pictures or formatting more complicated than paragraphs and chapters don’t work well on the black and white kindles I find. I have not really tried looking at those things on my wife’s fire or ipad.
I wonder if back in the mists of time people wondered if this new book thing would replace the scroll.
I’m with the OP on this. I much prefer my Kindle (old school, no lights) to books, particularly when reading in bed or when on trips. I still read the occasional paper book if it’s not available on Kindle and has no waiting list at the library. But I went from a book or two a month to reading around 200 in the past three years on Kindle alone.
