I love that you can email your own documents to the Kindle. Still unsure about actually reading books on it though. My sister-in-law gave me the paperback of Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada, I had not heard of him, I am not usually into Second World War novels but this has brilliant reviews. I've only read a few pages and it is much more alluring to me to pick it up than go back to the Kindle and read more of The Stranger's Child (only read a few pages of that too). A physical book is undoubtedly part of the charm of reading. I often recall reading a particular book in a particular place - from years ago - but e-books are all the same, like they've been cloned. I miss the feel of paper, the lovely cover you see every time you pick a book up. A Kindle on the table is just not seductive! However, I remember hating reading the news online, I had to have the real newspaper. Now, I can't remember the last time I bought the Guardian or Observer. So maybe I just need to get used to it. And happy that on the last day of the year, The State of Me is still yoyo-ing in and out of top 100 Kindle literary fiction. When the book came out in 2008 I could not have imagined this. So, yes, there are advantages to being modern. When I was showing my nephews last week how to use a yoyo (exhausting on your arms though!), I thought, this is good, old-fashioned fun, this is best. They lasted five minutes then they went back to their Playstation. But we also had much fun playing snakes and ladders, we named all the snakes and printed out their names so that when we went down one, we could shriek, Evil Steve got me again! In fact, Spotted John almost ruined Christmas for me - no.94 - he got me every time.
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I'm now in possession of a Kindle, thanks to Christmas and someone's rather amazing generosity. In fact I've had precisely the kind of thoughts that you've spelt out here, including a rather animated debate in the pub last night. No doubt I'll always love the physical properties of a book - the feel, the smell (same with music) but the kindle feels like a lovely thing too. I hope for myself that it won't become either/or, and that there's room for both.
I read Alone In Berlin a year or so ago, and greatly enjoyed it: but then it's got a big overlap with a large proportion of my reading matter. Nonetheless, there are a few passages in there which I found rather electrifying, over and above any considerations of genre/subject matter.
Oh and may I wish you all the best for the coming year.
Absolutely, Trews, it's not about either/or, it's both. I am slowly edging towards acceptance! Happy New Year to you too!
I'm still at the stage where I'm definitely a book reader, and can't imagine reading on a Kindle. I'm not very much a gadget person, i don't even use a mobile phone,
I love the idea of naming the snakes in snakes & ladders...
hey crafty, we named the ladders too, though the snakes was the fun part!
I love my Kindle, yes I love a "real" book, but the benefits of my kindle have really outweighed that. I like the fact I can get a new book there and then, I can sample a chapter from my bed if I'm not sure whether it's the right book for me, and that I can download something for free or very cheaply that is just easy pretty mindless reading when my concentration isn't up to much. But my favourite thing about my kindle is that when my arms are too achey to hold a book, the cover I have enables me to stand it up on my chest while I lay in bed. I have yet to try the text to speak function, but I expect that will be a major plus for me too.
I have just finished reading your book on my Kindle, having seen someone post about it on one of the M.E. facebook groups. I really enjoyed it and living only a few miles from Balloch, it was easy for me to picture your bench and the Loch. Let's hope we get a breakthrough soon. xxx
Lou, Thanks so much for your comment, I just *love* that you can imagine the bench and the loch, it brought a tear to me that you could.
Still adapting to the Kindle, but have downloaded a few books now, I got a thriller - Before I Go To Sleep - that is getting great reviews and was cheap - my brother later teased me, saying, 'How the mighty have fallen, you are now reading thrillers on a Kindle!'
He was the one that got me the Kindle and he reads thrillers all the time - I am the 'literary' one who will not read books that are easy on the head (though I understand fully why people do, for relaxation, or out of necessity to be kind to their poor ill heads).
And I am realising the whole range of choice on Kindle is rather wonderful.
Still, my brother is amused. But I think Before I Go To Sleep is a kind of literary thriller - hark at me, defending my choice! ;)
Take care, my dear x
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