The Kindle has its advantages after all

I received a Kindle for Christmas a few years ago, and I was horrified. It was like opening a box and finding a severed head. "Who would do something like this?!" That's how I stared at it when I opened the box. My father would do something like this. I realized it was a thoughtful gift. He knows I enjoy reading and the Kindle allows you to store all your books in one space. That may sound like a good idea to some people, but as someone who loves books, it was the worst thing I could possibly imagine.

 

Ever since I was a kid, I've loved reading. I was rarely at home on weekends to see my friends, but on the rare occasion that I was, I always preferred to stay home and read. When I wasn't home (because I had to spend weekends with my father), I would read in the car. And he would always yell at me to stop because he thought it was bad for my eyes. I didn't care, I still did it.

 

Since I've started posting more about books, I've realized that the Kindle isn't as evil as I originally thought it was. What I've been doing is borrowing library books online and having them delivered to my Kindle. It's not that I don't love going to the library, because I do. I enjoy being surrounded by all those books. It's just that sometimes it's more convenient to do things online. Score one for the Kindle.

 

There's another advantage to the Kindle, since I've been posting more about books. Instead of writing notes down when I plan to discuss a book, I can leave notes and highlight points of interest in the Kindle, which is much less time consuming. I could fold over the corners and highlight sentences in my books, but that would ruin them.

 

The Kindle will never replace my books. I rarely ever buy anything on the Kindle that I don't already own a physical copy of and that isn't going to change. I love turning pages. There's something therapeutic about it. I like to look at a book and see how much I've read by seeing where it's opened to and how many pages are on the left side compared to the right. Sure, the Kindle tells you what percentage of the book you've read, but that's not as satisfying.

 

Even though I prefer "real" books, the Kindle is no longer a severed head in a box. It's more of a picture of a severed head in a box. Still kind of horrifying, but slightly more tolerable.