No For Kin(dle) way?

Remember when the original Kindle was released? For those of us in the UK, that was the Kindle Keyboard in 2010 apparently (seems like it’s been around a lot longer than 8 years), although it was possible to import from the US as far back as 2007 (looking at those original 2007 models now, they look like a prop from the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey). I recall that at the time I was outraged? Perhaps not, affronted then. What was the point? We had books, written on paper, cheap to produce, cheap to buy, they’d been perfectly adequate for hundreds of years. I liked to be able to browse my book shelves and pick something to read, I enjoyed looking at the covers, I liked that people could see what I read and it would provide a clue as to my nature, it might even spark a conversation. In short, I liked books and I wasn’t about to change.

Several years later, the Kindle had evolved, the screen was better, memory was larger, the device was smaller, batteries lasted longer and suddenly it had an illuminated screen. You could take it on holiday and carry your whole library with you, you could read it on a plane without the overhead light disturbing people around you. At this point I accepted that the Kindle might have a place in civilised society after all, I still wasn’t going to get one though, I was a booky through and through.

A shorter while passed, someone close to me received a Kindle for Christmas, this was the first time that I’d properly had the chance to handle one in the flesh, I was impressed, begrudgingly. It turned out that the books I read on paper were identical on the kindle, same words, same order, everything. Then something fatal for my love of books happened, I finished a book (first in a new series). I loved it and I couldn’t wait to read the next one in the series, it was a week night though, no chance to visit the shops until the weekend (this wasn’t the kind of book you’d find on the shelf in Tesco), unlikely to be delivered any quicker if I went online. My Kindle toting loved one gleefully twisted the knife, “If you had a Kindle, you could just download the next book and be reading it in a minute” they said “Here, I’ve got it on my Kindle for you”, that was that, I started reading on a Kindle.

Now I love my Kindle, I look back and wonder what I was thinking, every time I pay less for a book (particularly when they’re 99p), every time I get the next book in a series I’m enjoying instantly, every time I sit up in bed reading with the light off while my other half sleeps soundly. We have more space in the house. I don’t get asked “What’s happening with that big pile of books and how much did they all cost?”. No one laughs at me on the bus anymore, well strictly speaking that’s not true, but they don’t laugh because they see a grown adult reading a kids’ book, they find other less obvious things to laugh at now.

I do miss looking at book covers though, I wish Amazon would allow you to set the cover of your current book as your default screensaver, that would be nice and help you to remember what you’re actually reading!

The basic gist of this post then is, if you haven’t already, get a Kindle. Don’t buy one today though, wait until Black Friday or some other such time, Amazon always does deals on its in house devices. Or get the Kindle App if you’ve already got a tablet, it’s completely free, you just pay for the books

There’s still one massive drawback with the kindle though, when I’m sat in the kitchen at work reading on my lunch, people think it’s ok to interrupt me to ask what I’m reading. “nothing, currently” or [sigh] “[insert title here]”. I’m think I’m getting old.

I’d recommend a Kindle Paperwhite you can usually get a good deal in an offer, then get a case to personalise it.

Update 01/01/19: There’s a new Kindle Paperwhite in town, this one is waterproof and you can use it to store and listen to Audible audiobooks, making it even more of a bargain.