A house can hardly have a more lovely decoration than a well-stocked bookshelf (except maybe a happy houseplant.) And for myself, as a re-reader, I like the comfort of the familiar copy, held in my hands, the binding creased and the pages bent and loose, loved till it comes to life like the Velveteen Rabbit.
Thus, books I will re-read get a hallowed place around here. But I've joined two book clubs, which means reading quite a few books that I would not ordinarily pick out for myself, and when there are seven people in one town all looking to check out the same book from the library, well ... sometimes I just have to buy the book. And it's cheaper and more convenient when I can do it through Kindle for PC.
Not having had $300-500 to spend on an e-reader, I just figured it would be awhile before the e-book trend caught me, but I discovered Kindle for PC (still in its beta version) yesterday, downloaded it, and am currently reading Father Elijah on my computer. No shipping time or charges. No refrigerator box on my doorstep with a little paperback and several air-pillows inside. And I can get next month's book for ninety-nine cents.
Don't get me wrong: when I come across a book I really, really love, I'm still going to want it adorning my bookshelf. I'm still going to want to hold it in my hands and love it into life.
For everything else that I can't get at the library: we'll see how this goes, but I'm thinking positive. It already feels better than reading the online text of Dracula I found, which had OCR errors in almost every paragraph and was contained in one extremely long web page. I thoroughly appreciate the bookmark feature. Now if they can just make it possible to set the background color to something other than white -- which I do even for my manuscripts at times, to keep the computer headache away -- they really might hook me on the ebook thing.
Nooooooooooo...no happy thoughts. :(
ReplyDeleteI guess it does make sense though (insert shrugging icon here...I don't know how to make one).
Love you. :)
Hahaha ... yeah, I know. I just went over to the Dark Side, didn't I? :P
ReplyDeleteCome, Jenna, join the dark side! You can get an ereader at Target for a $169 right now on sale. Others are available for around $259. Once you head down the dark path, forever will it dominate your way!! :)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, my wife & I each have had a Sony 505 reader since the beginning of 2008. I never thought I could get comfortable without having a real paper book in my hands...but I did. It's to the point where I prefer to read books on the reader rather than in paper copy. I'll still buy those old fangled books but that's mainly 'cause the book I want hasn't come out in an ebook version yet. Plus, there's books where I have both hard copy & ebook.
Don't forget that Barnes & Noble also has a ereader for PC too. The prices aren't that different but sometimes there will be a few price difference between Kindle & the B&N ebooks.
George, I'm afraid that if I keep reading ebooks, I'll have to do just as you say. Even my lovely little laptop computer isn't as portable as an ereader, and it's very annoying to have to decide between taking the laptop to bed or just going to sleep without reading.
ReplyDeleteThe only question is: do I want to spend $169 on an ereader or replacing my failing sound mixer? Hmmm.