I love real books – real paper, the smell of a new book and admiring the collection on my shelves. I’m one of those people who like books to be kept looking as new as possible and cringe when I find a crease down the spine.
When I first met an e-reader, it was while we were travelling. At the time I remember thinking it a weird idea to have a device entirely devoted to books, but I could see the attraction for travel purposes so that you didn’t have to carry a bookshelf around with you.
Fast-forward two years and I asked for a Kindle for Christmas to help me on my commute to and from work. Don’t get me wrong, I still love a real book and always will, but the Kindle will take some beating for transport convenience. Plus, e-books are so much easier to come by and generally cheaper!
Has having an e-reader changed the way you read? Or if you don’t have one, why not? Curious minds want to know!
Kindle
Skin
I got my Kindle a vinyl skin to protect it a little bit. The skin peels onto the outside of the Kindle like a screen protector and comes off again without leaving residue. There are a huge range of these skins available on Amazon, not just for this Kindle but for Kindle Fire and Keyboard.
I originally had the front panel on as well, but I found it distracted me while I was reading so I removed it.
Case
My Kindle sleeps in a BUILT neoprene case with a soft furry lining, so that its protected in my handbag or laptop bag. I’m very happy with the slim design and it looks great, too!
I can see the value and usefullness of e-readers but have not yet given in to the temtation, although I have used the kindle app on an ipad. I think I will always love the tactile reward of a the hard copy, although I think I will eventually give in to the convienience of an e-reader. I used to hate reading on screen because of the back lighting issue but I did discover with the ipad that the back lighting if anything enhanced the experience of reading a graphic novel which kind of surprised me.
Oh right! I guess I can kind of understand that with graphic novels since they are colourful. I guess that’s the downside with the kindle wi-fi – no colour!
What a pretty skin!! I read ebooks on my ipod though I do want a Kindle, I have been saving for one
Shelleyrae @ Book’d Out
I read e-books on my iphone for a few months.. it gave me the worst headaches 🙁 The Kindle is much better!
I love your skin too! I really want to get a skin and case for mine. We did order a nice little case from Etsy but it never turned up and the seller disappeared. 🙁 Shall look into it when I’m employed and earning!
As for replacing books: no, not a chance. I adore my books and you can often find me SNIFFING my Kindle before I remember that actually, just because I’m reading, doesn’t mean it’s a book. My brain still doesn’t get that part 😉
Still. I love my Kindle. It’s fantastic for Amazon sales, review copies, indie books, freebies.. Love it! But I’ll always prefer books. I’ll take both rather than one or the other.
I got my first reader (http://www.ebookwise.com/) ages ago… it was old, backlit, it had a touchscreen and I loved it. The only problems it had were:
– battery lasted ~13 hours tops
– American, so I needed to lug around a big and heavy transformer.
Fast forward a few years, I got myself a Kindle 2. I miss some things about my old reader (unlike most people, I loved the back light), but the Kindle is smaller and, best of all, the battery last aaaages. Very, very convenient for long trips. I’m never again carrying a backpack full of books with me!
I don’t plan on giving up dead tree books, but I have definitely bought less of them since I have the Kindle. Next step: finding a good reason to ditch it and get the shiny new Kindle Touch! The regular Kindle navigation is shit, honestly; my eBookwise did it 10 times better, 10 years ago. I hope a touchscreen might solve that.