The Kindle vs The Paperbacks

I love books. To read them I've missed most of my lunches in high school and left many a party early. 'He eats books', my classmates used to say when they didn't see me in the lunch-room. So reading is something I know something about. When I bought a Kindle to see how my new novel would look on it, I haven't put it down since. In my book, the Kindle beats paperbacks hands down.

But let's be critical. In a direct comparison, what can the paperbacks do that the Kindle can't?

For one, the Kindle doesn't have a distinct smell. Smell any book and it reminds you of a place or an object--the bookstore you bought it from, your local library, a second hand stall. Wonderful isn't it? All the books inside your Kindle smell the same. How boring. Point two, when you stop reading a book, glance at its cover by your couch or coffee table, and it takes you back to the story and its characters. Stop reading a Kindle and all you see are people like Agatha Christie and John Steinbeck in black & white. Yuck! Point three... well I can't think of a point three. They tell us that books don't need batteries. I charge my Kindle once a month. What's the big deal? Books don't have wires inside. What do I care if the Kindle does?

In many ways, paperbacks and the Kindle are almost identical. You can't read with them in the dark but if you have enough light, even too much light, they work well. You can read from both for long periods of time without tiring your eyes because there is little glare. In fact the reading experience in paperbacks and the Kindle is almost identical. A good thing.

In what way is the Kindle better?

For starters, it is considerably easier to hold, under all conditions. When you read from a paperback you must use both your hands, one hand is difficult and tiring. A Kindle needs no hands to read from. You can leave it on the table or support it next to your pillow. You can hold it and turn the pages with one hand quite easily. Try doing that with a paperback. A circus act, isn't it? Glance at the bottom while you are reading a paperback and you have an indication of how much you've read. Turn the pages ahead and you know where the present chapter ends. On a Kindle you know precisely what percentage of the book you've read, and on a line graph you are shown your place, the location and length of all chapters as well as where you started reading in your last session. With a Kindle you can control the size of the fonts and line spacing any time you wish. In a paperback you need a magnifying glass and a third hand. If you don't know the meaning of a word, in a paperback you need to have a dictionary next to you and at least half a minute to find the word. On the Kindle you can access the word by pushing a couple of buttons. You can also search for any word or phrase in the entire book and find it in a few seconds. In a paperback--good luck! Finally, if you fill-up your Kindle with books, you can read a book a week for sixty years. Most likely these are all the books you have read, and will ever read, in your entire life! Think about it. No more bookcases or libraries, no more dust and fire hazards, just all the books you could ever want to own right next to you, anywhere.

Some people say that with a book you don't need a device. They are the same people who didn't want us to use a calculator because it would make us all dumb, or further back, preferred to rub two pieces of wood together to light a fire rather than use a box of matches. These guys are so afraid of change that they don't realize that a physical book is a device as well--a mechanical one. In fact each paperback is a different device. You may keep buying these mechanical devices, stack them up in bookshelves, and fill up your home with them as we always did. Or you can move forward and get just one device that does most things better.

The Kindle.