I’ve Been Kindled
By Jeffrey Page
Without so much as actually holding a Kindle in my hands, I had concluded that this was a nasty little invention that eliminates the intimacy between author and reader, between reader and bookseller. And never would I own one.
My, how things change.
My daughter and son-in-law gave me a Kindle for my birthday and I enjoy it immensely, mainly for one wonderful feature. I now have the ability to enlarge the size of the type in the work I’m reading. This is no small gain for someone like me, who once went several months without picking up a book because the letters were blurry. It happened gradually and at first I was unaware of the change in my eyesight.
I finally came to understand my un-literacy when I tried on a pair of drug store reading glasses just for the hell of it. The letters were sharp, and I tried to remember the last book I had read, and when I read it. I couldn’t do it; it had been that long.
I bought that pair of $20 spectacles and was happy to read again. But I was getting headaches and went to see an ophthalmologist who told me the pain was due to reading with the glasses’ equal magnification in each eye when in fact, my eyes were different and I needed two different lenses.
Now the letters are sharper yet I still have a problem with type size. But with this Kindle I have eight choices of type size and I can see the page before me. Well, I guess I could always see the page, but now I can read the page.
Another thing I like about this Kindle is that with fewer and fewer bookstores to browse in, I can choose titles from Amazon’s huge inventory, push a button and download it in a matter of seconds – and at a discount. For example, I bought “The Warmth of Other Suns,” Isabel Wilkerson’s riveting story of the black migration from the American south to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. It lists for $30. I paid $12.99 for a hard-to-argue-with 57 percent break.
The portability is nice too, as is the capacity. They say a Kindle can hold 3,500 books. I could carry all 3,500 and never get out of breath.
There are losses connected with Kindle as well. I come from a time when there was nothing like a brand new book to savor. We would open the front cover and hear the spine pop slightly. We would turn the pages lovingly from the title page and on to the narrative. The paper felt soft and warm. And a new book had a wonderful aroma: slightly woody, a nod to the tree from which it came.
Kindle may be terrific, but I doubt I’ll ever give up on bookstores, and I’ll always keep the books I love most on my shelves for second, third and forth looks. The Iliad. Sherlock Holmes. Lear and the fearsomely honest Cordelia. The sonnets. Gatsby and Holden Caulfield. And Dylan Thomas breaking my heart again as he and I beg our dads not to go gentle.
Have you Kindled? What do you think of it? And what books do you keep on your personal shelf?
jeffrey@zestoforange.com
Tags: Jeffrey Page
October 26th, 2011 at 8:46 pm
Because of eye surgery that I wish I hadn’t had, I haven’t been able to read books, newspapers or magazines for more than a year. The computer and the iPad take care of the news, but I found it tedious to read a book on a lighted screen.
The Kindle might be the answer. I’m trying it now.
October 26th, 2011 at 9:03 pm
Are you the Phil Blanchard with whom I used to play chess in Monticello several dozen years ago?
October 26th, 2011 at 9:32 pm
I am. I gave up chess because I was tired of losing — every time.
October 27th, 2011 at 12:55 am
Jeffrey, like you, I was gifted with an e-reader. My daughter gave me a Nook last January for my birthday.
I wish I could share your enthusiasm for this medium. I’m a reader who usually has several books going at one time and I may not pick up a book for two or three weeks and then come back to it. When I tried to put the Nook aside and then pick it up again, I found it had discharged and – worse – it seemed to have forgotten who its owner was. I had to re-register it. In the fever of new ownership, I purchased two books. I have yet to finish the first. In order to pick up where I left off, I must first plan to recharge the device and by then I’ve gone on to something else. I can’t even plan which pajamas I’m going to wear until bedtime, so how can I possibly plan to charge my Nook to read the following evening?
The answer, I suppose, is to have ALL my books installed on my Nook. The cost would be higher than a Republican view of the national debt. Besides, I love real books – the kind you can write marginal notes in without typing on a keyboard. In the morning I read a REAL newspaper…well, it’s the TH-Record, but I get the paper version.
What books do I love? I read a lot of non-fiction. I love languages, some poetry – especially Rumi, and I got hooked on Harry Potter. I like myth and magic, like The Mists of Avalon and Harvest Home, to name a couple of modern novels.
I loved reading the classics in school, but seldom get a chance to re-read them unless I happen to be teaching them. Poe is always fun to do with kids. My all-time faves are probably The Little Prince and The Prophet.
October 27th, 2011 at 6:21 am
I use a couple of different eReaders now and don’t think I’ll ever go back. I love the hundreds of physical books I already own, but the collection has not been added to in quite some time. Reading a physical book is just too inconvenient, especially when you’re traveling for work.
Books will always be around, but for nostalgic purposes, not practical ones.
October 27th, 2011 at 9:22 am
I’ve resisted but I get tugged each time I go into Barnes and Noble and see the big display. Also, my future daughter-in-law has one and reads all the time. She loves hers. Yet, when I read your description of a new book, i got all teary-eyed and nostalgic. I still love paper books and the smell of newsprint on my fingers.
The kicker, I can’t see things either. My cave in at some point.
October 27th, 2011 at 9:25 am
PS: I still have my Complete Shakespeare Works from college; can’t part with it. I have some Greek Myths. Buried My Heart at Wounded Knee will never leave my bookshelf (well, actually my son is reading it now.) And, There are No Children Here shares space with Cornel West. I did give up my massive book collection after my doc said it was contributing to my allergy and other med problems. I now convince myself that books should not be hoarded but circulated. Thus, a much smaller library.
October 27th, 2011 at 9:48 am
My daughter and many friends swear by their Kindles. I’m not convinced. Having moved way too many books too many times, I like the idea of 3,500 books on a little machine. However, most of my favs are out of print and not available. As a bookaholic I won’t part with Elizabeth Goudge and Rumor Godden, English novelists I love. My good art and photography books, many pounds worth, still grace my shelves. I will try my daughter’s Kindle again next month when we visit. Doubt it will be on my Christmas wish list. I’ll let you know. I get the print thing. I get the light weight, portable thing. I just can’t leave my “best friends” behind. :>)
October 27th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
Thanks, Lee. I forgot about the pleasure (is that too strong a word?) of writing in the margins. But I must say that I occasionally come across notes from years before in some of my older books and often am not overly impressed with what I had to say.
Thanks, Jason. I have a serious question. Why would someone have more than one e-reader? Don’t they all perform basically (if not exactly) the same functions?
Thanks, Jo. I recalled the feel of a book’s paper pages on my fingers, but you reminded me of the smear of newsprint that comes with a newspaper. I love that smell and that feel. But that’s because I spent a lot of my life opening the day’s editions to figure out what needed to be followed, and what could wait. I forgot about Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Great, great book. Think Perry and Bachmann have read it?
Thanks, Lynn. Better watch out when you try your daughter’s Kindle. V-e-r-y seductive invention.
JP
October 27th, 2011 at 5:31 pm
My son introduced me to Kindle and I fell in love with it, wouldn’t trade it for the world. The ability to have three or four books going at the same time when flying or spending time in waiting rooms is great. I’ve given most of my classics to my sons and kept just a few of my favorite biographies, cookbooks and poetry books.
October 27th, 2011 at 6:30 pm
Hi Lenore, Good point about the ability to be involved with several biooks at once — all in a package that weights a few ounces. The discounted price helps, but the thing I truly love about it is my ability to set the type size to my own comfort level.
JP