You Just Can't Get THAT with a Kindle
This is a revised reprint originally posted on February 19, 2010.
I've been thinking about the e-book revolution a lot lately with Christmas coming up. There's a chance that my future might include a shiny Nook. Last year I was determined not to be taken in by the e-book craze. This year...I'm plotting the ownership of my own e-reader. I love print boks and I don't know how I could live without them, but then there's just something appealing about having a cute little e-book reader with all the things I'm reading on it.
But I'm not going to talk about the advantages of a Kindle over a print book or how Kindles are ruining the publishing industry today. Mostly because I'm not even close to being qualified to do that and there are hundreds of posts out there dealing with those very subjects and more by people that are. No, today I'm going to talk about the things that you just can't get with a Kindle.
1. Think back to the time you were a child. Before you could read. Instead you'd just flip through the books and look at the pictures with joy. Maybe you made up your own story to go along with them. Maybe you begged your parents to read it to you. That's one thing you just can't do with a Kindle.
2. No more donating books to children that can't afford them. Not unless you donate a Kindle too and those things have to either require batteries or a charger.
3. No more libraries. How would there be?
4. No more sharing books with friends. Half the fun of reading books is lending them out to friends to read them too -- especially when you get a particularly awesome one.
5. No more walking into bookstores and libraries when you're broke just to browse the titles and take in that soothing new book smell. No breathing in said smell while you read the book for the first, fifth, or hundredth time. Now if you could find some way to infuse a Kindle with that new book smell, that would be AWESOME.
6. You don't have to worry about a print book running out of battery life when you get to the best part. I know that most e-readers come with a very long battery life (I saw one that lasted for two weeks). To me that means that for two weeks I'm not going to think about needing to charge it. And then when the battery does need to be charged, I'm not going to realize it and the thing's going to die in the middle of a good scene.
7. You don't have to worry about not being able to see through the glare made by the sun.
8. You don't have to turn a print book off when the plane gets ready for take-off.
9. With a print book, you can drop it as many times as you want without having to worry too much about damage. Not so with an e-reader.
10. Half the fun of a print book (besides the smell) is the feel of the pages. That crisp sound they make as you fly through them. The joy of opening up a brand new book and the thrill of opening it again several reads later when the pages are crinkled and there's a spot on page two-hundred that got wet because you were crying so hard.
What else can you just not get on a Kindle?
I've been thinking about the e-book revolution a lot lately with Christmas coming up. There's a chance that my future might include a shiny Nook. Last year I was determined not to be taken in by the e-book craze. This year...I'm plotting the ownership of my own e-reader. I love print boks and I don't know how I could live without them, but then there's just something appealing about having a cute little e-book reader with all the things I'm reading on it.
But I'm not going to talk about the advantages of a Kindle over a print book or how Kindles are ruining the publishing industry today. Mostly because I'm not even close to being qualified to do that and there are hundreds of posts out there dealing with those very subjects and more by people that are. No, today I'm going to talk about the things that you just can't get with a Kindle.
1. Think back to the time you were a child. Before you could read. Instead you'd just flip through the books and look at the pictures with joy. Maybe you made up your own story to go along with them. Maybe you begged your parents to read it to you. That's one thing you just can't do with a Kindle.
2. No more donating books to children that can't afford them. Not unless you donate a Kindle too and those things have to either require batteries or a charger.
3. No more libraries. How would there be?
4. No more sharing books with friends. Half the fun of reading books is lending them out to friends to read them too -- especially when you get a particularly awesome one.
5. No more walking into bookstores and libraries when you're broke just to browse the titles and take in that soothing new book smell. No breathing in said smell while you read the book for the first, fifth, or hundredth time. Now if you could find some way to infuse a Kindle with that new book smell, that would be AWESOME.
6. You don't have to worry about a print book running out of battery life when you get to the best part. I know that most e-readers come with a very long battery life (I saw one that lasted for two weeks). To me that means that for two weeks I'm not going to think about needing to charge it. And then when the battery does need to be charged, I'm not going to realize it and the thing's going to die in the middle of a good scene.
7. You don't have to worry about not being able to see through the glare made by the sun.
8. You don't have to turn a print book off when the plane gets ready for take-off.
9. With a print book, you can drop it as many times as you want without having to worry too much about damage. Not so with an e-reader.
10. Half the fun of a print book (besides the smell) is the feel of the pages. That crisp sound they make as you fly through them. The joy of opening up a brand new book and the thrill of opening it again several reads later when the pages are crinkled and there's a spot on page two-hundred that got wet because you were crying so hard.
What else can you just not get on a Kindle?
Comments
An e-reader may be in my future as well. (Specifically Saturday, perhaps?) I think a combination of e-books and the real deal will be in order.