I think I could love a Kindle

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rainbow out the window at work today, missing the middle shot (taken with the iPhone)

I never thought it would happen, honestly.  I swear.  I have always been one of those Gimme my REAL newspaper, you can’t curl up in bed on a rainy day with a laptop in the same way you can read the paper in bed Sunday morning newspapers have to be PAPER.  And books?!  Don’t even mention electronic books to me.  Really.  Puhlease.  They can’t come in the bathtub; no pages to smell and feel and turn; no row of spines on the shelf reminding me how much I loved reading them; no margins to scribble notes in.  The horror.  Seriously. 

But there I was last night in bed, the NPR.org app open on my iPhone.  I read about Britain’s effort to curb binge drinking and Colbert’s sponsorship of the US speed skating team, and just a little bit about Haiti (too sad).  I let my newspaper subscription lapse months ago, because literally months would go by without me reading it.  In print, anyway.  I read the local paper online a couple of times a week, thanks to the email updates they send me.

So, I don’t know, last night it just hit me that I am a total convert.  I don’t need hard copies of everything when I can fit it all on my hard drive.  I don’t need to waste all that paper when I can read it online.  You know?  And the electronic device may be a little cold, but I’m seeing it as a way to have so much more with so much less hassle.  Part of me is all Hello?  Who ARE you?

I used to work in a doctors’ office, back in the day when we used computers, but only to print stuff out.  Part of my job was FILING.  Filing papers.  Like, in alphabetical order and everything.  And working for two neurosurgeons, there were a lot of papers: MRI and CT and X-Ray reports; Face Sheets; summaries of medical histories, illnesses, injuries, and operations to fix them; dictated letters after each patient checkup; Triplicate prescriptions; Insurance approvals and bills and OMG the insurance paperwork – incredible.  Our complex wouldn’t recycle paper, and one of the doctors would get so disgusted by the huge stacks of paper that we went through and he’d say, in his Massachusetts accent, Holy shit, the trees are cryin!  And, really, they are.  And I’m not sad to trade my aesthetic preference for paper in for however many trees will be spared if I continue to go paperless.  Also, my bookshelf looks pretty ok with those framed photos
and stuff along with the books, so extra room is not a bad thing.   

So,
okay.  I am NOT for getting rid of books entirely, of course.  Not
even.  Or magazines or CDs or newspapers, or any other thing that can
come in an electronic format.  But I do think it’s going to be the case
that I save the paper versions of things for the super-cool stuff, like
my teeny, 1910 copy of Write It Right, by Ambrose Bierce (even though there is a free download available!), or my 1959 copy of Shakespeare and Company, by Sylvia Beach. I’m one of those people who doesn’t even print out my receipt at the
gas pump to save paper, and I’ve gone paperless on all my bills.  A
Kindle may seem too sterile at first blush, but everyone who holds one is
holding the thanks and huge relief of one more tree.  As soon as they
come out with one I can take in the bath, I’m totally there.

9 thoughts on “I think I could love a Kindle

  1. Sharon Petrone

    I love love love my kindle, got it for Christmas the dx model. Do not miss having the actual paper books in my hands. Best invention ever!!

    Reply
  2. tobye

    I love my Kindle, but I am terrified to take it into the tub, which makes it a little less perfect, in my opinion. Tub readability is pretty important to me.

    Reply
  3. Kellee

    I am totally anti-paper in every possible way except for when it comes to books. My only shift in that aspect has been to rely more heavily on the library, and only buy the books that I’m certain I’ll want to read again. I used to love to have the reminder of everything I’ve read smiling back at me, but I move too often to keep lugging books around with me. So the library will have to do for now, I just don’t think I could go Kindle. Maybe one day, though πŸ™‚

    Reply
  4. Paula

    de-lurking here… I love my kindle… BUT, I still miss the sound of the page turning, and I find that when I am deep into a book, my hand sneaks up to the top of the kindle… to t u r n the p a g e. Old habits die hard… still it is the BEST thing for travel.

    Reply
  5. Kris

    I put my Kindle in a large Ziplock bag and take it in the bathtub and to the beach. I have had mine for two years now and absolutely love it. Adore it. Hate the cramps I get in my fingers when I read a “real” book.

    Reply
  6. Jenijen

    Hi Paula! My cell phone makes a fake-o camera noise when I take a photo, maybe they could add a page turning sound? I guess that just isn’t the same, tho.

    Reply

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