I Loves Me Kindle

I got a Kindle for my birthday. At first I resisted giving in to this technology. I like the feeling of holding a book in my hand. I love walking through the aisles of a bookstore and having covers jump out at me. I like to count the pages I've read and determine how far along I am. You can't get these feelings with an ebook...or can you?

I also have some little idiosyncrasies when it comes to reading books.

1. I don't like reading hardbacks. They are too cumbersome to hold and carry in a purse.
2. I am very particular about the condition of a book. I much prefer new books. To see a book whose pages have been turned down to mark a spot or whose front cover has been folded back makes me cringe.
3. I don't like library books, mainly for the two reasons listed above. Plus, think about how many people have sneezed directly into a library book.
4. Finally, I'm very particular about a book's font. If it is too small, it hurts my eyes.

For the past several months, I have been on a reading kick. And since I have a new book fetish, I have run out of space on my bookshelf. I just took a load of books to a used bookstore, and they've already piled up again.

I also need instant gratification. I buy a lot of books on Amazon (since there is no new bookstore in my area...gasp!) The problem is, it takes a week to get the book.

So......for all of these reasons, I've bought a Kindle. I used my birthday money (yes, even 36 year-old's get money in cards.) Now, I can:

• get instant gratification with a 1-click download that is immediately transferred
• store 1000's of books
• control the font size

I was afraid the screen would hurt my eyes, but it doesn't at all. It is not back lit like a computer. If you're reading in the dark, you still need a light.

Best of all, I bought a case for it and you can hold the case just like a book.

As for roaming through bookstores, I can still do that (if I'm ever in a real city.) I can just download the Kindle version straight from my device. There also is no rule prohibiting me from reading "real" books. Let's be honest, for the longest time, the bookstore I most often frequent has been Amazon.

Instead of pages, I now count in percentages. Because you can change the size of the font, the number of pages in a book can change. Instead, the Kindle tells you the percentage of the book you've read. You can also see how far along you are into a chapter, for those who don't like to stop reading until you've come to the end of one.

I just finished reading my first Kindle book today, The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen. It was AWESOME, but that's a separate post. Read my Shelfari review. I feel like I read so much faster with the Kindle. I also might read different types of books than I'd normally choose because Amazon offers specials, which is how I ended up with The Surgeon.

That's my review.