I finally bought a Kindle

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I have at various times over the past few months had a Kindle in my Amazon basket, but have managed to summon the strength to remove it. Last week, I finally gave up resisting.

The idea of an eBook reader has appealed for a while. My Dad got a Sony Reader a couple of years ago and he really likes it. He's never actually bought any books for it yet (plus it's impossible for me to buy him one indirectly for a present) but he's been happily working his way through the sizable collection of free classics that are supplied with the device. Of course, you can carry a lot of books around with you in one of these things.

Kindle plus points? Well, it's compact, the screen is lovely and clear to read and it is very easy to get books onto the Kindle: you don’t have to use dreadful software to get books onto the thing. So the system works (wake up Sony), the books are not stupidly overpriced (i.e. more than a hardback - wake up Waterstones) and, though you can easily find books for pennies on Amazon Marketplace, there are a loads of Kindle books available for free such as all of those fabulous classics you've heard about but never read. And the real Brucie Bonus (tm), is being able to preview a book is a fantastic idea and a feature I've made good use of on the phone.

[One very minor note on samples: I got a sample of a book on the English legal system and by the time I got through the table of contents, table of figures and tables of cases, the sample was over so I didn’t actually get to read any of the book itself. Having said that, on the whole it’s a great system.]

So why did it take so long? A few reasons spring to mind. First off: I have piles of books in the house that I haven't read yet. I was supposed to clear the backlog first. FAIL.

Secondly, the tactile nature of holding a book would be a loss to me, although this seems less of a problem as I read things on my phone's Kindle app and the Kindle itself. On a related note, I think reference books may be a bit of an issue, where you need to flick through a book to check references or stuff you've forgotten from a chapter or two ago. I'm currently reading a book on Turkish language reform, and this is proving a bit of a issue. Not a huge pain, but I just know a book would be easier to deal with in this situation.

Thirdly, I read in the bath. Dropping a book in the bath is fine, dropping a piece of kit worth over £100, less so.

Finally (that I can think of for now) is the social aspect of real books. You lend and you borrow them, they are a tangible and welcome gift (usually). This all vanishes when you enter the realm of the eBook. On a related point, I’m still not sure what happens to libraries...

But regardless of all that: I’ve caved, I bought one, and I love it.

A final note: I really hope this approach to selling books gives more authors a chance to make a decent living. Not just the select few with the big book deals, but all those who manage to write books worth reading.

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