By HD Silversmith
I finally did it.
After a few months of dithering and a concentrated month of serious consideration and comparison shpping, I bought a second-generation Amazon Kindle. It arrived today via UPS, and it's happily charging away now on my desk.
Because I love the physicality of books themselves, even cheap paperbacks, I'm not at all sure that an e-reader is right for me. I've always liked being surrounded by bookshelves in whatever tiny room, study, apartment, or house I lived in. Book-covered walls make me feel safe, cozy, grounded, and happy -- I'm surrounded by them as I write this, as a matter of fact.
So -- why an e-reader?
Well, it's certainly not to replace hard-copy books, that's for sure. I just don't see that happening in my life, particularly given my job as a college professor.
Rather, I have a very targeted purpose. My primary motivation is to reduce the amount of what I call hard-copy disposable reading I do in order both to 1) be a little more environmentally friendly 2) reduce the costs of that kind of reading over time.
As anyone can see from the list of recreational reading in the sidebar of this blog, I read a lot of mass-produced fiction -- specifically series romances, which are cranked out in large numbers by various publishing houses each and every month. Most folks I know who read any sort of genre fiction do so in great quantities, and even when they opt to trade books or take advantage of second-hand bookstores (as I often do), they spend a fair amount of money over time on their habit.
In my case, I never keep series romances. At best I trade them in. At worst I literally throw them away. Not all donation centers or libraries will accept them. They're probably one of the least valued forms of popular culture, even today.
For this reading niche, it seems to me that an e-reader is the perfect solution.
- An adequate number of series romances from various publishers is available in Kindle-friendly form each month to feed my habit.
- They're significantly cheaper in their electronic form than in their new and even their second-hand print editions.
- They're ephemeral -- which is exactly what I want this particular kind of reading to be.
On the relatively rare occasions when I feel like buying a top-10 list bestseller, that kind of book tends to be electronically available as well.
I might even consider an electronic subscription to The New Yorker because it's so much cheaper than a hard-copy subscription -- though I've never yet had time to read a single issue cover-to-cover before the next week's issue comes out.
So we'll see. I might have thrown away my money on a niche purchase I'll never use -- but based on my particular reading habits, I have a hunch it'll pay off.
That said, I suspect it may take some getting used to. Stay tuned.
