Why You Should Buy a Kindle

Every other day some columnist has written a piece detailing their agony over the decision to give up paper books and journals and buy a Kindle or tablet.  I can boil it down for you and make the decision very easy.
If you currently only read books from the library a Kindle will definitely be a financial shock.  You will now have to purchase all of your books.  On the positive side no one but you has taken your Kindle into the bathroom with them....after eating bad clams.  Or sneezed into it.  Or picked their nose and left the booger on page 231.  All of these things have happened to the library books you read in bed and let touch your pillow.  I'm just saying.   And when borrowing library books on the Kindle does become widespread then there will be no dilemma about whether to buy one.

If you like to browse for your books at Barnes and Noble, and circulate among fellow readers, then downloading from Amazon can be lonely.  But the reviews, especially the mean ones, on Amazon.com will most assuredly keep you entertained.  After reading some of the reviews you might not even have to buy the book.  This is especially true for non-fiction.   We all know a non fiction book is basically one 25 page chapter repeated over and over to fill 350 pages anyway.  If Thomas Friedman tells me the world is flat and proves it by an anecdote about call centers in Mumbai India, then I believe him.  And I usually believe him by page 23.  Or if Michael Pollan tells me to eat more home grown vegetables and less corn syrup enhanced chicken nuggets I am on board by page 18.  No need to go on and on about some wacko hippie foragers or right wing survivalist farmers for 250 pages.  So by reading the reviews or downloading the free samples in the Kindle store you have already saved money.

If it is the tactile feel of the book's paper, or the sound of turning a page you think you will miss, let me disabuse you of this silly notion right away.  The Kindle can be held in one hand.  It can rest on your lap without your having to hold it open.  It can play music while you read.  It can read to you.  You can buy a book without getting out of your beach chair.  You can have your newspaper delivered to it and it will never be wet or late (well sometimes it is) and there is no newsboy to tip.  You can cut and clip favorite passages and download them to your computer.  You can look up SAT words by just putting the cursor on the word.
You don't need your glasses while reading in bed as you can make the font bigger than this.  It fits in a back pocket and you will look very cool reading it at the airport. 

There are a few downsides.  Books will never get remaindered as there will be no need for a warehouse to store unsold books.  But if you ever believed technology would save you money, you were already misguided.  The biggest negative of the Kindle, however, is that you can't share a good book with a friend, or trade it at a used bookstore.  But I am sure the authors are happy about that so by reading your book on a Kindle perhaps there is a better chance for struggling writers to make a decent living.  And that's a good thing because I feel sorry for people who get to sit around in their underwear, drinking coffee and eating donuts, and staring at a computer screen all day long to make a living.