The Kindle

I’ve been reading and hearing how important it is to use the latest forms of communication in order to have a ‘platform’, get our names known, promote our work and do research. Technology has made so much information and communication right at our fingertips. Our phones do almost everything now. And I’ll admit I love new technology. All the new gadgets fascinate me, even when I don’t understand them or can see no need for them.

Yes, there’s a big but coming. But…I still like the simple, low-tech way of doing things, too. And I’ve decided it has its place and value. Let’s not forget them.

I bought a Kindle over a year ago. I was planning to do a product evaluation, but I’ve hesitated a long time trying to decide if I like, love, or hate the thing. There’s so much I like that the things I don’t like seem kind of petty, but still they take away from the joy of my reading and reading is one of my most heart-felt joys. At one time reading was my only joy. It is so close to who I am. It is so entwined with that I can’t explain exactly what I mean. It is a secret about me that for years most who knew me wouldn’t know how important or how much I read. It is the thing some know about me that defined me. I have always read tons.

Reading is more than just the act of reading for me. It is this crazy, obsessive love of mine for books. Old books, all musty and dog-eared with writing in the margins, new books, crisp and new, for me to open first. I am a bibliophile of the first order. Nothing can pull me into a flea market stall faster than a big box of old books with burgundy, green and navy spines and creamy pages. You see, for me it is not just the reading, it’s the touching, thumbing through and the owning.

But…as you can imagine that kind of obsession causes a big space problem. The Kindle seemed a solution of sorts. I could buy (cheaper) new books (tons) stored in one book-like item. I could carry that library with me, a very tempting thought when I’m looking at a retired husband wanting to travel some. The Kindle does all that.

It lets you make the font as large as necessary so you don’t have to use your glasses. It lets you take notes, too, though, for me, taking notes this way, without writing in margins, without writing down and filling notebooks (I think another obsession) isn’t as satisfying. The books are generally cheaper, although, that is about to change a bit, which though not Amazon’s fault really, frustrating because one of the great selling points for me was newly released hardbacks at only $9.99. On that point, I was expecting the price raise. It’s just disappointing.

Yet, on that point, also, the book wars (among other things) has changed much in the industry and after all, I want to work in the industry. My take on the whole thing was that anything that gave more people a chance to own and read books ended up helping the industry as a whole. Not without growing pains, but helping.

Another thing that frustrates me about the Kindle, and I’ll admit it seems dumb, and maybe, it comes from writing novels, but I just hate that I can’t know how many are pages left, or how many I’ve read. There is a little think on the bottom of the page that shows you with dots about where you are in the book, but I’d like a way to know the page number I’m on out of the page number there is. Even with the change of font, I would think the technology would be there to do that.

I read in the tub. Nothing is better after a hard, long day to have a nice warm bath laced with lavender and a good book. Looking at the Kindle, it seemed to me that it would be as easy to read in the bath as a book. It’s not. I haven’t figured out why yet, but part of it is because it isn’t as comfortable in the hand.