kindle photo

 

Last year my hubs bought me a kindle for my birthday – a fab gift since I can’t access an English library or find English books at a decent price in Switzerland. So I merrily downloaded a load of classics because they are free, and I haven’t read Dickens in a while. Then I toured the freebie kindle downloads, and generally explored the world of reading on a small screen.

I didn’t like it.

Yes, for beaches and holidays they are invaluable – and for reading and editing my own work I love the kindle. But; I love books. I love the smell of ink and paper, I love the feel of a smooth, or embossed cover, I love the heft in my hands of a decent-sized tome.

Something else I find when reading on a kindle is that my eyes skip over the page and I skim so much faster, thereby missing a great deal. Or not really missing anything, in some cases. I don’t get pulled into a story on kindle the way I do with a real book. When I open a real book, I open a world. When I open the kindle I skim words.

Last week I went to the UK and spent a very happy hour browsing a bookstore and purchasing another Kate Morton book. I could read her on kindle, but I won’t. I tried. It doesn’t work. For some reason, my attention span on a screen is significantly less than it is for the printed page.

So I have decided my kindle is great for beach reads and zippy stories, and for those books, or authors, I like to spend time with, nothing less than the printed page will do.

 

books photo

What about you? E-reader or book?