OK, I admit it. I suffer from bibliophillia. I love the feel of a book in my hands. I love looking at books. I love collecting books. And, of course, I love reading books. Over the years I have acquired: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, a leather bound set of the Britannica Encyclopedia, A leather bound collection of the Great Books Of The Western World, Will Durant’s 11 volume Story Of Civilization, The 20 volume set of The Annals Of America, and hundreds of best seller books. In fact, I have no room left for more books. The answer to my dilemma was a Kindle Reader, which I received for Christmas.
When I first heard about the Kindle, I thought I would never want one. How could it compete with real, physical books that you hold in your hands? Why would you want to get eyestrain from a glowing computer screen? Wow, was I ever wrong! My storage problems are over because I can store more than 3000 books on my tiny (8 inch by 5 inch and ½ inch thick) Kindle. As for eyestrain, there is none because of the E Ink technology used by the Kindle. It has better contrast and sharper text than paper and ink. There is no glare like there is on a backlit LCD screen. It looks like paper and ink but better. It can even be easily read in bright sunlight. I find it much easier to read a Kindle than to read a conventional book.
Some of the Kindle’s features that I really enjoy are: Ability to change the font size, Instant definitions from the built-in dictionary, The ability to highlight text electronically, I can make notes as I read, I can share meaningful passages with friends with built-in Twitter and Facebook integration, I can save quotes, notes, and highlights in a file and have access to them when I finish a book. This is a huge advantage of digital over printed books! The price of digital books is substantially less than printed books and I have access to 30,000 classic books that are free; Yes, I said FREE! You can have one of these miraculous inventions for only $139. I recommend that you get one.
On the other hand, you can't pass books on to family and friends.
ReplyDeleteHappy new year to all,
TsarPat
A valid point from the Tsar. One disadvantage of the kendle is the inability to pass "physical" books on to family and friends. However, it is possible to pass on digital books.
ReplyDeleteBecause of the many advantages of the kindle, I predict that the Tsar will soon acquire one. The best of all worlds is to have both kinds of books_physical and digital!