Why I Bought A Kindle Although I Love 'Real' Books

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When I had unpacked my Kindle, I wanted to get going. E-simpleton that I am I thought I’d connect it with my computer, find a book, click on ‘Buy’ and start reading. When I realised that wasn’t possible but that I had to register/install (or whatever) it first, I lost interest. It’s an age thing, I’m just not attracted to playing around with e-gadgets. Amazon offer a detailed instruction and a video. It seems easy peasy to follow them because the girl I asked to do it for me, succeeded in no time. I downloaded first some classics for which there isn’t a copyright any more. I didn’t want to read them at once. I just want to have them in case I need something to read. An important reason for the acquisition of a Kindle was that I read fast and when I go on holiday for two weeks or so, I have to take many books with me. They clog up my suitcase and add a lot of weight. But what is worse is if I’ve got books with me that I don’t like and I’m abroad in a country whose language I don’t know and can’t buy an ersatz. Another attraction of the Kindle is the speed with which I can download a book (less than a minute). What a thrilling experience to have a book ready to read at once. Something else: Have you noticed that the quality of paperbacks is getting worse and worse? In GB and the USA there is no resale price fixing for books as there is in, say, Germany. That means publishing houses produce books as cheap as possible. I notice bad paper especially in American paperbacks. You can call yourself lucky if you don‘t get splinters in your fingers when turning a page. The margins are getting narrower and narrower and the font smaller and smaller which saves paper and thusly money. I can still decipher the text but it doesn‘t give me pleasure when it‘s too small. So I cherish the possibility of enlarging the font. All things considered, I‘m content with the Kindle. I‘m not going to inform you what one can do with it. The Kindle site on Amazon tells you everything you want to know and more. I want to read books with it and nothing else and this is what I can do to my satisfaction. One last thought: The idea that all the books my husband and I own could theoretically be stored in this one thingy the size of a thin paperback gives me the creeps. A flat/apartment or a house without shelves full of books? Horrible! Unthinkable! Besides, I’m a paper fetishist. I stroke book covers and sniff at pages - also in bookshops. I know that I’ll go on finding my reading pleasure mainly in dead tree books, but the Kindle is a convenient extra. --- Photo: pixabay