I love my Kindle.
I realized over the weekend that I had never written about it at the time, but part of my Christmas present from Bill (and it seems half of America got the same gift!) was a gorgeous black Amazon Kindle.
I love it – I haven’t been reading as much as usual, but over summer I am sure that will change.
Of course, accessories are so important. The best thing I have bought is the basic Amazon black leather cover… with the inbuilt light. For the extra cost it has been worth it! I love how the kindle just sits on my bedside table – without books toppling over, gathering dust or anything like that. I love that I can have a collection of books without them taking over our little home. I love that when I travel, I have so many books to choose from. It just is really really nice. When you live in tiny apartments like we do here – the Kindle is a blessing.
For me it hasn’t resulted in spending a huge amount on books – I am lucky as a lot of the free ones they offer are ones I like and when I do want one it is just a few clicks. The big bonus is, unlike when I visit a bookstore, I don’t get tempted by everything in sight! The latest pick for book club has been ‘The Help’ and I am really enjoying it and enjoying reading it as an eBook.
Funnily enough, a major part of my Digital Publishing subject (or something like that!) as part of my Masters was reviewing eBook readers and talking about the future of them. It is nice using something that I thought I would never really buy when I first heard of them!
In other book news, on thriftbooks.com I picked up two books that I have been meaning to read for ages. Monkey Grip and Cloudstreet. Two Australian classics that will be great summer reading… I hope! When I heard that Cloudstreet had been developed into a TV series I just knew I had to read the book before I saw it on iTunes.
One thing that the Kindle doesn’t do is offer the surprise element that buying second hand books does. I opened Cloudstreet and in it was this inscription –
Jonty Darling Love,
Please read this with your thongs on. Perth memories. Love always, Perette xx Perth 2000 (eek!)
Happy 30th Perette,
All my love and best wishes
Dennis x
And there was also this card –
So this dear book was given to Perette from Dennis, who presumably lived in Perth. Then Perette met Jonty in Perth who I assume is from America. She decided to cross out the Dennis inscription and send it to Jonty as it is set in Perth. Jonty then gave it to a secondhand bookstore. I perused the web, bought it from what I thought was a place in Connecticut. It arrived on my desk in the Financial District.
It has been everywhere and now, Cloudstreet is in New York.