Thursday, November 10, 2011

Booking Through Thursday: Reading Gadgets



Today's question:
E-readers like the Kindle and iPad are sweeping the nation … do you have one? Do you like it? Do you find it changes your reading/buying habits? If you don’t have one, do you plan to?

How many times must I say it? There is NOTHING like holding a real book in your hands. Nothing. And until the day I can't hold one for whatever reason....that's the way I'm going to read. My job requires that I stare at a screen all day long...if I'm going to read for pleasure, I want it to be a totally different experience from what I do at work.

I can see where the gadgets might be nice if you do a lot of traveling or commuting on planes/trains/subway. Then, it would be good to have books at your fingertips in light-weight form. Or if you have some sort of disability that holding the much heavier hard copy is a problem. I see advantages.

But for me...I don't need the advantages and I won't give up my paper copies. Finding that just right book sitting on a shelf...browsing through the books and picking one out just because it looks good, the cover grabs me, the title, the blurb. How can you possibly get that experience shopping for e-books for your reader? You have to have something to put in the search category. And scrolling through electronic print just doesn't do it for me. Not for searching for my books and not for reading them.

The only way I'll wind up with some kind of e-reader is if I win one or someone who doesn't know me well buys it as a present.

7 comments:

neer said...

And the 'scent of a book' Bev. Nothing can beat that whiff of pure pleasure.

Bev Hankins said...

Very true. I'm an old book scent kind of girl myself....

Unknown said...

Completely agree!

CMash said...

hmmm...do I hear just a wee bit of wavering in that last sentence????

Bev Hankins said...

@CMash: Nope. Just sayin'. I've entered contests where one of the options was an e-reader. Wasn't necessarily the prime target as far prizes went for me...but I would have taken it. I've also had folks ask if I'd take it as a present. Again, not gonna look a gift e-reader in the mouth, but not gonna go out of my way to get one either.

Bev Hankins said...

@CMash: Nope. Just sayin'. I've entered contests where one of the options was an e-reader. Wasn't necessarily the prime target as far prizes went for me...but I would have taken it. I've also had folks ask if I'd take it as a present. Again, not gonna look a gift e-reader in the mouth, but not gonna go out of my way to get one either.

Jenners said...

I can see your point … but I still love my Kindle!