Do you have purchases in your history that make the you wonder if you did the right thing? Even immediately after you’d parted with the cash or swiped your card – but you did it anyway and then when that purchase came home with/to you, you can’t help but look at it with different eyes
Did you wonder if it was quite right time? If maybe you’d waited a little bit longer you’d feel just a little bit different, maybe the excitement of the new toy/outfit/eyeshadow colour wouldn’t be tarnished with this awkward edge of guilt…
Yeah… me neither.
I didn’t buy a Kindle because I saw one in ‘person’ and thought it looked fab…
I didn’t get seduced in by the INSTANT access to any book sparked my interest as it came up in conversation…
I didn’t fall in love with the [sigh] red leather cover with its own sparkly LED light to illuminate the manuscripts nestled inside the little electronic darling…
I didn’t give up tv for Lent so I could spend more time reading books within her pages [are they still pages??].
I didn’t already spend $50 on books… books, if I’d been patient enough for, I could have got for free, one by one, in the library.
[snorts] Don’t be fooled… I totally did all of these things… and the one that bothers me the most is the library thing. I LOVE the library, I love having a pile of books to trawl through beside my bed… I love tucking a bookmark between the pages. I love snuggling into the sofa with a coffee and a couple of hours to wile away. I LOVE books. I love my bookshelf with old favourites overflowing the shelves.
I do love my Kindle – I spent the money, I had it… I’m a single girl with discretionary income… so it isn’t the cash that has me all discombobulated.
I’m out of sorts because I’m a little afraid of how it’s going to change me… I can see how my iPod has changed my music consumption… and I can see the writing on the wall of my library.
It isn’t the cash that has me remorseful… it’s what I’ve just done to booksellers.
Don’t worry too much Aunty Dee – I’m sure I can do your share as well as mine own for the booksellers.
Oh yes… booksellers need not fear while you’re around!!! And I can borrow from you when I need a fix of paper based fiction!
My sister and my Mum, both big readers/lovers of books, have made the jump to a Kindle. I think it will have a small effect on the number of books they buy, and for my Mum maybe on those she borrows from the library, but not to the extent of replacing them entirely.
I think where it really comes into its own is when travelling or on the go. Instead of having to find space in your handbag for that big hardcover you’re in the middle of so you can read it on public transport or while waiting somewhere, you have instant access to whichever book(s) you’re in the middle of. And instead of having to pack 5 or 6 books in your luggage when you go on holidays and risk losing library books, you just take the one Kindle. At home I think I’d still prefer to curl up in bed with a physical book, but then again I don’t have anything else to compare that feeling with.
Personally I don’t have one (yet) but if I did it wouldn’t have much of an impact on booksellers because I buy almost all my new books online (they’re like half the price and free delivery!). And I will always love having a decent physical library stocked with my favourites that I can run my eyes over for a nice comfortable feeling of plenty.
So don’t feel too much remorse! I don’t think they’re evil, just the way things are heading.
You’re probably right Jo, it will be brilliant on holiday… though dropping it in the pool will render it useless where it would only render paper book… wet…
What it has done is actually get me paying for things I wouldn’t have paid for before… the books I’ve been buying would have been read at a library ordinarily… so it’s good for publishers… if not for briks and mortar stores!
I’m working on that guilt feeling with a book depository imminent purchase …. haven’t made it yet but it’s gonna happen …
I really struggle with the idea of electronic books, much more so than iPods and downloaded music. Like you I love have the comfort of a stack of books by my bedside table and fully stacked shelves – not to mention the calm,blissful pleasure of visiting my local bookshop or library.
Not sure if I will give Kindles a go…