I read a book this week – It took me just two days and I read it entirely while traveling by bus to and from my day-job and waiting in line at the post-office.
I know, you’re thinking big-deal! Lots of people read on buses. But I never did, mainly because I never wanted to shlep a book with me. I carry enough as it is and didn’t want to add to the load.
But now with my Kindle ( substitute any e-reader) it’s always in my small hand-bag, weighs next-to-nothing and contains several books I want to read.
I was also amazed at how many free books are available on Kindle. I had assumed that all the freebies would be – forgive me for saying it – junk. But that’s simply not the case.
I have downloaded several books that were on my to-read list, free of charge and I've bought several others at ridiculously low prices.
There are several sites for free and cheap e books. Amazon have a monthly list of 100 free books and on Twitter you can follow @pixelofink and #freekindlebooks and get daily updates, some of which are new books.
Friends have said – well you can’t use it on Shabbos (the Sabbath when we're not allowed to use electronic devices) so why bother, but the truth is I read completely different material on Shabbos anyway and I’m sure we’ll always have bookshleves full of ‘real’ books, but there is definitely a place in my life for a Kindle.
And by the way, I’ve also downloaded a free Siddur and Sefer Tehiilim so that’s another couple of items I don’t need to carry with me during the week.
If anyone has any more ideas / links I’ll be happy to hear.
4 comments:
Glad to hear that you're enjoying your Kindle. Mine has been assigned to a cupboard while I decide if I really like it or not. I love the way I can download a book and be reading it in minutes but I don't like the way you can't flick back to check for things or turn it over and have another look at the front or back cover as they don't seem to arrive with the rest of the text. I've also had a problem with some of the entire works of. I downloaded the entire works of Dickens but can't scroll from one book to the other. I can only move through it one page at a time. Neither do I know what else is on it or in what order. Oh, for front covers and contents pages. I've returned to real paper for a while.
I agree, they're not perfect by any means. But I've also discovered that the instructions were minimal and not helpful but with the help of my tech-savvy niece I can move around the books a lot more than I thought I could.
But I guess I'll always stil love reading real books - it's just very convenient, cheap and light.
I love mine too! I was in Barnes and Noble today and felt a little sad . . . all those books trapped on an electronic device feels strange. Yet, I ADORE my Kindle.
How nice! I cannot wait to get my own Kindle, iPad, or some kind of e-reader.
I love the idea that you can carry so many books with you. :)
Post a Comment