To Kindle or not to Kindle? by Lynne Benton

Recently I have seen several posts in which people have asked whether it’s worth getting a Kindle, or whether reading books should always be as books.  As a reader of both, I wanted to add my own views on the subject.

For a long time I strenuously avoided ebooks, thinking there was nothing like a real book, etc. etc.  But after hearing many “pro’s” from people whose views I respected, one year when my husband asked me what I’d like for my birthday, I asked him for a Kindle – just to try, you understand.  (Everything in this blog refers to a Kindle – I don’t know anything about the other ebooks that are out there, so if you own a Kobo or similar, my findings may not tally with yours.)

Reader, I was converted.

I discovered that, as other people had said, it has so much going for it.  It’s small and light and therefore easy to carry around in your pocket or handbag, it’s easy to adjust the print size so it’s comfortable to read, and when you have to stop reading temporarily, you can just close it and know it will keep your place till the next time you open it.  I like to be able to see how much time it will take me to read the rest of the book (you can see this at the bottom of each page – it adjusts automatically according to how quickly you are reading) and the percentage of the book you have already read.  Kindle books are also, on the whole, cheaper to buy, and an author’s entire output is available at the click of a button.  Compare this with trying to find, say, the next book in a series you are enjoying, and finding that it’s not available in a bookshop, or if they can get it for you at all it will take at least three weeks.  It is also extremely easy to buy new books, either via the Kindle itself or through the Amazon page on your computer.  I do prefer the latter, since I can find out from there what the book is about, and if I’m not sure, I can read one or two of other people’s reviews.  (I know these are not always reliable, but if several of them say much the same thing it’s a pretty good clue as to whether I’m likely to enjoy it or not.)  Then you can download it right away and start reading.

At first I was concerned that my Kindle seemed very vulnerable if I left it uncovered, so I bought the specific cover designed for it, which had the added features of a) being proof against rain or damage, b) having a magnetised closure, which automatically turns the screen off as soon as you close it, while turning it on again as soon as you open it, and c) the ability to fold back on itself, so the fabric interior, which is non-slip, won’t slip off your knee while you are reading it. 

Also, according to members of my family who live in London, it is also perfect for reading on the Tube on the way to and from work, since you can hold it in one hand and use the same hand to turn pages.

I love being able to carry an entire library around in this one small object.  I take mine with me whenever I might have to wait for a while (eg doctor, hospital, dentist, airport, or travelling by train or coach, as well as going on holiday – no more heavy bags of books to take with me!) The other thing is that reading a big fat book is as comfortable to hold and read as a small, very thin paperback. Furthermore, and very pertinently, when you have finished the book, you can “delete from device”.  This means it goes into the archived items on the cloud, from where you can easily download it again if you want to read it a second time, or want to check on something.  But, crucially, you don’t have to find a place on your overcrowded bookshelf for it!

My original Kindle was the very basic, cheap one, which worked beautifully but now seems slightly clunky for page-turning or for finding things using the slow letter-finding keyboard.  Having said that, it was still enough to convert me to the delights of reading on it.  I have now upgraded to a Paperwhite, which is rather more up-to-date and features a backlight (the brightness of which you can alter easily) and a simpler, touch-screen page-turning mechanism.  I find the backlight useful if I can’t get to sleep but my husband is happily asleep beside me, because I can turn on my kindle (with the brightness turned down somewhat) and read a chapter without disturbing him.  And strangely, I can usually get to sleep after that!

The only downside of the changeover that I found, apart from having to buy a new cover because my new Kindle was a slightly different size, was that all the books I’d already bought but hadn’t yet read were added to the long list of Archived items which I had read.  For this reason I was very glad that I’d kept a notebook with details of all the books I’d bought, and crossed them off when I’d read them.  (This I would definitely recommend!)  It took a while to recover them all, but I did it, and can now find what I’m looking for with no problem.

Of course there must be some downsides, I hear you cry, and I have to agree.  For example, it’s not so easy to flick back and forth through the pages as it is with a book, so for this reason I tend to keep my Kindle for reading fiction, which I usually read straight through.  For non-fiction, when I often want to flick back to earlier pages, I still prefer to read an actual book.  Similarly, biographies, which tend to include pages of photographs, are better in a book (photographs and diagrams don’t come out very well on a Kindle, and unlike the text, you can’t enlarge them to see them better.)  For the same reason I don’t read children’s illustrated books on my Kindle, though presumably they work all right if you use a Kindle app on your ipad or tablet – or if you have a Kindle Fire.  I can’t comment on that because I’ve never tried them.  Occasional black and white illustrations work all right on Kindle, but mine doesn’t do colour, though the Kindle Fire and more up-to-date models do.  

However, since I use mine only for reading, and mostly for reading fiction, I’m perfectly happy to stick to black words on a white, or almost white page.

In case you are thinking I must have shares in Kindle or Amazon, I don’t.  But I love my Kindle, and to those who think they would never want to read anything on an ebook I would say: Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!

visit my website: www.lynnebenton.com