Did I lure you in with my intriguing title? Sorry to disappoint, but this is not the salacious tale of two men fighting for my affection! In fact, it’s far more serious and conflicting then that.
I love reading; it is my favourite past time. When I read, the whole world fades away and it’s just me and this wonderful story unfolding. I’m known to completely switch off’ and ignore everyone around me, particularly when reading magazines. According to my mother, I learned to read at a very young age, and I haven’t stopped since! I can’t remember much of my childhood without a Roald Dahl or Enid Blyton book by my side.
In fact, Mum used to dole out punishment when we misbehaved (FYI I only misbehaved when it was instigated by my brother, yes Mum it’s the truth, if you’re reading) as follows:
- Brother – “Go to your room and read a book“;
- Jane: “Put that bloody book down and go and play outside on your own, no you cannot take the book with you!”
Cue images of an 8 year old me wandering aimlessly around the backyard, wondering what exactly she expected me to *do* in the backyard without my books! It was really a cruel and unusual punishment!
On average, I read 1-2 books a week, usually general fiction/commercial women’s fiction. I like biographies about people I’m familiar with, but I’m an oddly obsessive reader and I really don’t like classics or literary masterpieces. I find them a little boring and feel like I’m expected to like them.
Last Christmas, I traveled home with about 15 library books. Mr W and I were a comic’s dream at the airport swapping my books into our various suitcases so that I could meet the weight limit! I take that many with me so I’m never without a book! I love them. I wander into bookshops and imagine they are my home. I want to have my own library and reading room one day, with book print on the curtains! Sometimes, I tell Mr W I’m going to the library just to pick up some books I’ve got on hold and he calls me an hour later saying “where are you?”. I’ve been distracted and am sitting in the reading corner in the kid’s section. Obviously, if anyone looks at me funny, I just pretend that I’m a seriously grown up 10 year old.
I was vehemently against e-readers. I thought they would be nothing like reading a real book, like reading your computer screen, they weren’t the same as the look and feel of a lovely novel and of course, they wouldn’t smell like books! Who would want to read a great novel on a computer screen? Not me! Not to mention the contribution they could have to putting bricks and mortar bookshops out of business and driving down author revenue (I’m pretty sure authors don’t get paid very much anyway).
However, I’m travelling in April, so I decided to suck it up, give in to popular opinion and ask my Mum to give me a Kindle for my birthday, so that I could read it for travel only. I read quite a bit about e-readers, and it seemed that the overwhelming preference is for the Kindle. Something to do with how the image of each page imprints onto the screen, and it has no backlight – hence being less harmful to your eyes.
Well, Mum, I think I’m going to solely lay blame with you for my local library suddenly becoming a ghost town. Cue the crickets.
I turned on the Kindle, with cynicism, and thought it looked ok. Checked it out, no books on it yet, figured I could put up with reading on it from Brisbane to Los Angeles and all around the USA.
Then I got on my computer and thought I should check out Amazon (Kindle’s developer) Kindle Store. Then I completely lost control, like a person who has suddenly won the lotto! THE BOOKS WERE SO CHEAP AND THERE WERE HEAPS THAT WERE FREE!! All the classics were free (who cares if I don’t really like them, they were free!) and this Hunger Games series that everyone seems to be bleating about was $4.00 for a book! FOUR FREAKING DOLLARS! “Kim and Kris – What Went Wrong” for $0.99! 30 minutes and $50.00 later, I had about 15 books. It is as easy as setting up an account, and selecting “one click” as the option, and you literally click on the book, then hit “buy now” and it is sent straight to the Kindle!
I thought “oh this e-reading business is going to be crap, how can I enjoy reading all these books on a computer thingy, but I’ll give it a go at home“.
Got home, started reading one book to see how it would go, and I got about 3 chapters in before it even clicked I was using the Kindle! I felt sick! I thought – “I’ve betrayed real books, I’m a cheater and disloyal! I’m a hypocrite!” I soon calmed down and remembered that it is possible to like and use the two of them, without feeling like a total sell out.
I will always prefer real books. Nothing can beat reading paper and print novel or biography. The Kindle will just get a bit of love when I’m travelling or can’t be bothered waiting for a new release to turn up at the library.
Photo 1 found here. Photo 2 source unknown.
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