Dowdsy McDowds
Sally was here
At Christmas, my dad bought me and my sisters a kindle. He'd had one for almost a year and had been going on about it from pretty much the first time he powered it up. His job requires him to do a lot of long distance travelling for prolonged periods of time so the kindle was perfect for him as its lightweight, has an amazing amount of battery life and can store hundreds of books.
Despite these same benefits being applicable to my sisters and I, we weren't as overly enthused about the product as our dad was (though thats not to say we were ungrateful) because we all live within close proximity to one another and some of our physical interaction with each other comes from borrowing/sharing DVDs, books and CDs. We are all quite busy with our lives at the moment and the past few times I've seen my sisters has been predicated on the lending/retrieving of items. However, now we all have kindles, we can recommend books to each other to download rather than physically passing them on, which I feel is one of the few drawbacks to the kindle/ebooks if you will permit me to explain:
An authour I am very fond of is Kurt Vonnegut and it so happened that my uncle had been a big fan of his too and owned several of his books that soon found their way to me. A phrase that was read out at his funeral was the advice he passed on to my cousin; "If you can't do any good, don't do any harm", which is paraphrased from Vonnegut's novel 'The Sirens of Titan.' When I read that a month or so after his passing I felt a huge mix of emotions. On one hand, this was MY connection to him as it turned out my cousin had no idea where he'd got that phrase from, but on the other hand I knew I wouldn't be able to ever talk to him about Vonnegut's writing style though it is something we both had affection for. Owning his copy of the book is my way of feeling that a part of him is nearby.
Now, if I had read 'Sirens' on an ebook, I would still be filled with the joy and loss that I had when I read it on paperback but I would be lacking that physical connection and memento of my uncle.
The retailer I work at has recorded that over the past few months, the kindles have been outselling the iPads (both 2 and 3 combined) by a rate of 3 to 1. Cost, portability and season are all factors in this, but a recurring theme I hear from customers is that a friend or relative has recommended one and I can't help but wonder to what degree the device may affect social interaction. With the iPads, the user can use the facetime function and so there remains a social tool with the browsing device, but of course the kindle has no such function.
Despite this, I have to admit I find the kindle to be a great device and it has definitely increased my thirst for reading due to the easy acquisition of titles and vast storage.
So, has anyone else gone over to the digital side of book reading? Why/why not?
What are your general thoughts on them?
Is the lack of social interaction that comes with lending/buying physical books something that bothers you? Why/why not?
Despite these same benefits being applicable to my sisters and I, we weren't as overly enthused about the product as our dad was (though thats not to say we were ungrateful) because we all live within close proximity to one another and some of our physical interaction with each other comes from borrowing/sharing DVDs, books and CDs. We are all quite busy with our lives at the moment and the past few times I've seen my sisters has been predicated on the lending/retrieving of items. However, now we all have kindles, we can recommend books to each other to download rather than physically passing them on, which I feel is one of the few drawbacks to the kindle/ebooks if you will permit me to explain:
An authour I am very fond of is Kurt Vonnegut and it so happened that my uncle had been a big fan of his too and owned several of his books that soon found their way to me. A phrase that was read out at his funeral was the advice he passed on to my cousin; "If you can't do any good, don't do any harm", which is paraphrased from Vonnegut's novel 'The Sirens of Titan.' When I read that a month or so after his passing I felt a huge mix of emotions. On one hand, this was MY connection to him as it turned out my cousin had no idea where he'd got that phrase from, but on the other hand I knew I wouldn't be able to ever talk to him about Vonnegut's writing style though it is something we both had affection for. Owning his copy of the book is my way of feeling that a part of him is nearby.
Now, if I had read 'Sirens' on an ebook, I would still be filled with the joy and loss that I had when I read it on paperback but I would be lacking that physical connection and memento of my uncle.
The retailer I work at has recorded that over the past few months, the kindles have been outselling the iPads (both 2 and 3 combined) by a rate of 3 to 1. Cost, portability and season are all factors in this, but a recurring theme I hear from customers is that a friend or relative has recommended one and I can't help but wonder to what degree the device may affect social interaction. With the iPads, the user can use the facetime function and so there remains a social tool with the browsing device, but of course the kindle has no such function.
Despite this, I have to admit I find the kindle to be a great device and it has definitely increased my thirst for reading due to the easy acquisition of titles and vast storage.
So, has anyone else gone over to the digital side of book reading? Why/why not?
What are your general thoughts on them?
Is the lack of social interaction that comes with lending/buying physical books something that bothers you? Why/why not?
