The best of both reading worlds

To Kindle or not to Kindle?

I got my new Kindle today. The old one, about ten years old, had fallen by the wayside and refused to charge up or turn the page. So, now it is e-waste (not a happy thought, but I will find some way to dispose of it. Or else just keep it).

My new device has a rather tasteful maroon cover. In five minutes, I transferred my library from the old one; I probably need to delete a few books from it. But… isn’t “deleting a book” rather an odd (uncomfortable) concept?

I still have my “real” books - hundreds of them. As part of our clear out (which is proceeding at a snail’s pace) I am weeding out quite a few. I even have some duplicates, and many that are so old and raggedy that I am not going to read them. Well, what’s the point of keeping a book that you are never going to read?

All the books are going to good homes: libraries etc. And I must say I still enjoy reading “physical” books, although I find it inconvenient that I cannot read them in bed with the lights off. I like my screen with “warm” lighting. Sometimes the font is rather small on regular books, and I cannot adjust it.

So, why do I still love regular books? Well, at least in my collection, it’s little things - like illustrations. I am reading what is really more of a young adult/fantasy novel by an interesting English author, T.H. White. It belonged to my beloved aunt, and seems to have been purloined from Boots Library in England (I didn’t know Boots had a library). OK, let’s give my aunt the benefit of the doubt; she forgot to return it.

The book is entitled “Mistress Masham’s Repose.” It is very scruffy; after all my aunt acquired it in 1949, according to her inscription. In the inside cover it has a lovely curly illustrated map of the half-ruined mansion where the action takes place, and its rambling grounds - which include monuments, walks, fields, and temples. Obviously, this could never work in a Kindle.

Nevertheless, I have found that since I had a Kindle I actually read more - I am not sure why this is. I often just play around with regular books, instead of getting down to the reading part. With Kindle there are also my “Notes and Highlights” which I love to post on my Goodreads page. It’s the equivalent of writing in the margins and underlining passages in a “real” book.

So, let me raise a toast to both Kindlers and non-Kindlers! The main thing is, we are all reading…

The lovely map inside my aunt’s book, “Mistress Masham’s Repose.”