Reading on My Kindle

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David's tools of choiceI have only had my Kindle a few weeks, and now that I’ve read two books on it, I am about to admit something so ghastly, so horrible, that you might want to sit down.

Are you sitting?

I actually enjoy reading on my Kindle better than paper books.

There, I said it, and there’s no taking it back.

What do I like better? When reading Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? it was a snap for me to look up a word I came across and did not know. I also have found that with these two books, even without the added pleasure of reading the bathtub, I just zipped through the books. I have no idea why I was able to read faster on the Kindle than on paper, but I suspect it has something to do with simply being absorbed by the book and not flipping pages around and also with the dimensions, which allow for easy reading while lying down in bed. I don’t have to prop up one side or the other. Notetaking is easy, and I don’t feel as though I’m really marking up the book. Plus I can find my notes very easily. If I want to look up something I read (like last night when Steven Levitt mentioned the restaurant French Roast, and I wanted to find out if it was still in business) I am able to open up a browser and look it up. The typeface is easy to read. Probably a sign of my age, but when I see books with small type or a lot of type crowded on the page, I groan.

So am I going to be burned as a heretic? I know some people who will view this statement as equivalent to my having been seduced to the Dark Side. No worries. I have no desire to murder all the Younglings.

photo credit: Iain Farrell


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9 thoughts on “Reading on My Kindle

  1. I must admit that I am reading Pride and Prejudice on my iTouch and love it. The words are large, the pages are easy to flip, and as you say, I can make notes and check on details. Books are heavy to hold. The iTouch is small and portable. I take it everywhere, and when I find that I must wait for an unexpected 5-10 minutes, I whip it out and start reading.

    1. I found reading on my iPhone easy, too. I read The Woman in White and Persuasion that way. I found the mass market paperback version of Persuasion that I had really difficult to read, which was making it tough for me to get through the book. Then, I had the brainwave that the book was certainly available on Stanza as it was in public domain, and I really enjoyed it. I was the same way with reading on it, too. I took it out and just started. The beauty of Kindle for iPhone or iPod Touch is that it syncs with your other Kindle devices, so I could, if I wanted, pick up where I left off.

  2. I think we need to start using Younglings in our vocabulary more often. Haha.

    My stance on ereaders has definitely changed since I started my blog. While I don't own an ereader, I can now understand how they are equal if not better than paperbacks. Whether you read "Of Mice and Men" on paper or on a Kindle, you're still crying at the story's end. For me, I realized that when I move from apartment to apartment or from one state to another, I'm hauling books around that I'll probably never read again but love to have just in case. How nice it would be if I could have all those books sitting on a Kindle instead of in numerous boxes!

    1. I'm a big Star Wars fan. It's one of my main texts in a class I teach on the Hero's Journey.

      We are reaching critical mass with books. I'm told the Kindle holds 1,500, which is way more than I currently have, even though I have probably hundreds.

      One thing I do love: book covers. The Kindle's renditions of book covers doesn't cut it.

  3. I don't think I'd go with the heretic vote. To be honest, the only reason I don't own some form of e-reader is that I can't afford one, other than that I'm very glad to see that technology is being used to make the plain and everyday of reading a book an even simpler and richer experience.

    Incidentally, I read somewhere that you can also get newspapers and maybe periodicals on a Kindle. Are you a regular newspaper reader? Have you tried on the Kindle? And is there much of a selection when it comes to it?

  4. You are no heretic! I love my Kindle too. My husband and I have to share it though which is kind of hard sometimes. I'm thinking that when I graduate from library school next May I might have to reward myself with the gift of a second Kindle so we don't have to share anymore.

    1. We share our KIndle, too. No major conflicts yet because it has just worked out that I'm reading a print book when he's using the Kindle and vice versa, but I'm sure we'll run into one sooner or later.

  5. I love my Kindle! My husband has one and we can share books since we have the same amazon Kindle account. He gets his beloved Washington Post newspaper daily on his and I currently subscribe to Time magazine. I find that with the Kindle I can easily read 3 or 4 books at the same time and not get confused! I recently bought a cookbook for my Kindle but I am not sure how that is going to work out. I will let you know.

    Love this blog.

    1. We share, too, as I mentioned to Stefanie. I haven't tried any newspaper or magazine subscriptions yet. Even though I usually have two or three books going at once, I haven't tried reading more than one on the Kindle. I would like to see how the cookbook works out. Thanks for the comment on my blog!

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