Okay, so as an English Major, and later Reading Teacher, I love books. Like I have a serious weakness for them. When we moved into our house, I think I almost got a hernia from the boxes of books that we moved in. Since then we’ve things have only gotten worse. I seriously had this grand scheme of having a personal library, a room with wall to wall bookcases with a nice comfy chair and a light, that was it. Reality check in 3…2…1…okay, we have a three bedroom house, and I totally could create a library, but that means no office, no art studio, no personal sanctuary. I’m not willing let go of the rest. If we move again, who’s going to pack up and haul all those books around? I certainly have zero desire to do that. Plus, I’m to the point in my life that I’m kind of tired of the clutter, and the ridiculous baggage that includes. I’ve been watching the Tiny House movement unfold, and someday I’d love to live in a tiny house, but that means the books aren’t going to make the cut. So I’ve decided to ditch the bulky books and go digital. It was actually a lot less painful than I thought it would be.
Okay, so I do miss the smell of books, the crack of a new cover, the feel of paper under my fingers. But I don’t miss dropping my book and losing my place. Forgetting my book somewhere and having to buy it again. Having to sit in boredom, when I have a few minutes to kill. I don’t miss hauling my book around with me, just one other thing cluttering up my car, purse or house. The oh shit moment when food, or water gets on the book and you go into all out crazy eyes trying to get it cleaned up.
I decided to go with Kindle, mostly because I already loved shopping Amazon for books. I had some Kindle books for my tablet already. But because I’m kind of an insomniac I got a basic Kindle reader. LCD’s can mess with me at night resetting my brain to think it’s daytime. This way I can get some sleep, that is if I can put the book down. Slowly I’ve been replacing my original collection with ebooks and growing it. Bestselling new books are generally a bit cheaper than bookstore prices. Instant gratification is nice, you can get a book even if you don’t want to get off the couch to go to the store. I can research authors and get their latest work in seconds. I’ve also found some pretty great self published authors that are exclusive to Amazon, and cost only a few dollars each. They also have sales pretty much everyday.
My favorite part of using ebooks, is that I can read on whatever device I happen to have handy. If I’m out and about, I can use my phone, at home I can use my Kindle or tablet. I just need to open up my app and it will automatically jump me to the right page so it’s really convenient for me. The hubster and I can share ebooks between devices. I can borrow ebooks from other Kindle users, and the local library. It’s pretty awesome. I will say that I am not paid in any way by Amazon for this post, but if they want to kick me a few books, I won’t say no. I just like the product, and its features. There are plenty of other ereaders available, B&N Nook and Kobo have similar products as well. I had a Kobo ereader back in the day, I didn’t find their selection to be great, but this was years ago, things have most likely changed. I paid the extra $20 to get the ad free Kindle, it’s worth it to me, but it may not be to everyone.
Not having to carry another box of books, priceless.
1undomesticgoddess 