For sometime I have been contemplating the purchase of a Kindle from Amazon.com. I know it would be something that I would probably use everyday. There are so many benefits of owning one from my perspective, reading in a larger font, light and easy to transport, instant downloads of reading material, easier to read in bed, not losing your page, and so forth. This technology is perfect for me, except for one thing. I would have to say goodbye to the physical impact that a book possesses.
Why this letting go is so difficult is beyond me. There are still some of us left in this world who love to read a newspaper over coffee, travel with a book and write in journals. There is something nostalgic, romantic, or perhaps just plain familiar when it comes to these things.
Besides, can you swat a fly or cover your head in a sudden rain storm with a Kindle? How nosey can you be in scoping out what people sitting next to you are reading if they are using a Kindle? There is something to be said about striking up a conversation with someone based on their reading material, or avoiding them all together (does a Kindle hide your face as well as a book?). Okay, so now I am being petty.
There is something else that creeps into my mind while I try to make this decision. I love the book jacket. For me, it is just as important as the pages between it. How I would miss the graphics and reading the front flap, the back flap and checking out the author's photo. I am a sucker for this and it is an integral step in deciding if I want to buy a book.
Another thing, while the Kindle would eliminate books taking up more space in my house, I love that books take up my space. (Yes, I admit this suggests that "things white people love" obsession).
So what to do? I think I liked it better in my ravaging consumer days before I made the transformation from buying everything to buying nothing. The jury is still out on my espresso machine as well. Funny, I used to think people who obsessed over these smaller buying decisions were nutty, and now I have become one of them! I mean it isn't like buying a house or a car. It seems it is just really a matter of the heart and that can sometimes be a very tough hurdle to jump.
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