On getting an e-reader

e-reader kindle paper trail diary

Hell hath frozen over – I bought a Kindle.

Yeah, I know.

For years now, I have always stuck to my notions of:

*I am a paper girl through and through — I love the smell, I love the way it feels to hold a book and flip pages, I love dog-earing pages, I love writing in books sometimes, I love the way they look on my shelves and make me feel at home, etc etc etc.

*I rarely travel, nor do I take transit to commute. (Plus when I travel I always come home with more books.) Although I am a bit scarred from once trying to read a book while standing on a packed subway and almost dropped it on someone’s face.

*I don’t want to contribute to killing off paper books (turns out books are now leading over e-books though!).

*I am stubborn.

*I spend enough time looking at screens already.

But I’ve been thinking about getting an e-reader for a while now. Why?

*Because then I’d have access to NetGalley, a portal for book reviewers to get ARCs (advanced reading copies). I get a fair amount of physical ARCs but some of them I don’t feel like keeping, especially if they’re uncorrected proofs, so I don’t know what to do with them and just feel bad. Plus, they take up space. I’m going to be moving in a few months, so space is on my mind a lot. And the fact that I need another bookshelf.

*I could read while eating. Seriously it is tough to hold on to a book and eat at the same time! This way I can read more!

*Taking publishing courses last summer taught me not to be so judgemental about e-readers. They are just a new part of keeping the industry afloat, and if it works for some people, so be it.

*Some books are heavy and kind of a pain to carry around with me all day.

*I am just super curious and like new toys.

*It was on sale, plus using my university email address, I was able to sign up for a student account and get another $40 off.

So, what was my reaction like in our first 24 hours together?

Ok, now what? Aw, it’s so tiny. Are there any books on my to-read list that I don’t care about having physical copies of? Why does the screen flash whenever the page ‘turns’? Is that going to really bug me? What else can I do on this thing? How do I convert PDFs to the Kindle? I wish I could use the library ebooks on this thing but oh well. Oh I can’t read YA on here, YA books are so pretty in paper! Ooh I like that all the lock screens are typewriters, pencils and letterpress letters.

I putzed around and tried reading some samples of books that are on my Goodreads to-read list (once your account is connected, the Kindle knows your soul). I accidentally bought a book when trying to find out how much it would cost (it must happen a lot if you then get a pop-up asking if you bought it accidentally, but seriously the price wasn’t even there). I haven’t yet decided what first book to get to read on it yet, and I feel a little silly looking at a screen, but I think because I am such a paper person, it’s going to take me a while to get used to an e-reader. Once I get through a whole book on the Kindle, I’ll let you know how I feel. I am still oddly drawn to it (the new toy fascination) and despite my partner’s look of betrayal on his face when I said I bought one (sorry babe), I think it’s an interesting new territory to learn as an avid reader and book blogger.

Shoutouts to Karen of One More Page and Michele of Just A Lil’ Lost for putting up with me asking a million questions about e-readers. You guys are so patient.

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This entry was posted in Books.