I'm stuck in the house waiting for my replacement kindle to be delivered, which got me to thinking about e-readers in general. It's definitely a big talking point in the book world at the moment and I think e-readers will only get more influential as time goes on.
I'll start by confessing to being a relatively early adopter of and evangelist for the kindle. My old kindle 3 was a gift last February from my husband and I loved it. I still do - until it broke last week while I was on holiday. More of that later though.
What did I love? The screen and its matte paperiness. The little Casio keyboard esque typepad with the round clicky buttons. The easy interface with the kindle store. The massive storage capacity. And of course I loved our holidays together. No book-induced luggage weighin panic. Buying books on holiday when I ran out. A dream come true.
The storage capacity is an important one. I live in a small terraced house, and currently books are everywhere. Beside the sofa. In a teetering pile on my bedside table. Under the spare bed. In bags in the attic. In 3 bookshelves. On chairs in the dining room. On the kitchen counter (for the cookbook addiction). So I loved the idea that I could reduce the bookspill in my house. To be honest, I think that's why my husband bought me it.
My kindle 3 and I were happy together. I loved reading it in bed after I bought an expensive amazon cover with a builtin light. But kindle didn't replace printed books. First off - and I know this is a real issue in publishing - was the cost of ebooks. I really value books. I don't disregard the cost of editing, marketing, and publishing great books. But I do think a physical book should cost more than a download. Perhaps we've got too used to cheap books (hello, end of the Net Book Agreement, which I can just about remember). But a readjustment of some.kind needs to take place.
Lately, I think it's me who's been adjusting a bit. I've realised that the convenience of the ebook might be worth paying £4.99 for. But I'd have to know I wanted it already to pay that. I think that's because if I take a chance on an ebook and I don't like it, there's not much I can do about it. I can't pass it on to someone else in the hope they might enjoy it, or give it to charity. I do like passing books around, whether I have or haven't liked them and I think that's a big loss if you exclusively kindle.
I also buy secondhand books loads, and of course that doesn't happen on the kindle. And some books have such beautiful cover art that I want to own them. So the bookdrift continues to accumulate.
On Monday I went to a really interesting readers' group meeting at Pan Macmillan with the author Carol Rifka Brunt. She very interestingly said that the library was her kindle - that's where she got books she didn't want to keep. I was really struck by this. I love my local library and am a keen borrower. (At the moment I've got a fine waiting to be paid so I've not been for a while, but I'll gloss over that.) I think for me the library's a bit different. Its usp is hardbacks. The request facility is what I go for - and the fact that I know if I'm not enjoying a book I can stop: no questions asked, no buyer's remorse.
At the bookgroup we were asked how many of us had ereaders. I was really surprised by the low number - I'd previously assumed they were at the.tipping point (cf Malcolm Gladwell). My dad has one. The secretaries at work all have them. I see them everywhere on the train. But this group of booklovers seemed slightly unconvinced. If I remember correctly, only one person said they did the majority of their reading on kindle. Maybe they aren't "for" bookworms. Maybe they're for more casual readers.
But back to the broken kindle. My beloved 3 developed heart failure. The screen blanked out, nasty lines appeared, and no amount of tlc would restore it. Amazon's best offer to me was a 20% discount on a new one. Frankly, I think this is poor. I spend lots of money with them; the kindle is broken through no fault of my own; it's only 18 months old. But they wouldn't budge.
So I'm left waiting in for a new one. Why did I buy it? Well - I'm hooked. I still love the papery screen. I still love reading it in bed. I really really love the 99p deals. I have loads of ebooks on it I haven't read yet and I don't fancy reading them on my phone. And, crucially, I'm going on holiday tomorrow. So, like an old lipstick or a bashed up biscuit, the kindle is in my handbag to stay.
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