Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Books, Kindle, E-Readers, etc.

Not a day passes by when a new E-Reader does not hit the market. Yet, after all the energy Amazon.com spent on me, I am still not convinced I should get Kindle. Before I can finish looking at their ads that adorn my inbox, they keep coming up with the new versions of the thing. I think they have the third one, now.

These people know how to roll the stuff off the factory lines. If only that could be the answer to our current economic crisis...

On the other hand, no matter what they do, I have my priorities. First, I already spend a lot of time online, which I like, because in my steep age, like an oldie says, I’ve grown accustomed to WdC’s face, and I am not going to play with other toys.

Also, I love books. I love curling up with them. I love the feel of them, the smell and the sound of them, the tiny sounds their paper pages make, and I am partial especially to the paperbacks that fit in my purse so snugly. They offer the same delight of looking at the faces of old friends, as their pages open one by one with languid grace.

Books are easy to maintain, too. They don’t need electricity; neither do they make me wait until they recharge. They don’t cost an arm and a leg. I can stack them up or give them away when I am done with them.

Just watch a bookstore going out of business. People flock to it to buy books at a reduced price. Should an E-Reader company go out of business, nobody would touch that thing-a-magic without any company-backing.

It is possible, however for E-Readers to entice me after the text-to-speech thing really succeeds and if I can use them with ear-pods. Yet, chances are I’d still prefer the books that can be repaired easily with only a couple of inches of scotch-tape, instead of by an electronics technician.

To be fair, nobody can ban the Kindle or another E-Reader. In contrast, books do get banned from school libraries by boneheaded administrators or are declared unfit by those green around the gills. On the plus side, I am too ‘grown-up!’ and too stubborn to be banned from anything, although my internist has been making attempts in that direction.

Nothing against E-Readers. To be fair, I may even get one eventually if I can see the use in them, but only as long as they stay in the book business as enhancements and do not take the place of the real thing.