I was e-published pretty early in the game (my SF romance, Eternity, came out as an e-book in 1998). But I was definitely not an early adopter of reading e-books. I always felt pretty guilty about that. Here I was, an e-published author, on the cutting edge of publishing, and I read nothing but paper books.
The thing was, back then the options for reading e-books were not the greatest. There was reading on your computer (ugh), or using one of the clunky e-readers that were available. I did try it for a while, first using an eBookman, then a Palm Pilot. But with both of them, the experience was awkward and uncomfortable. I always went running back to my paper books.
Then I bought an iPod, which I grew to love. And downloaded the Kindle app. I started reading books on that tiny screen and realized I really liked it. The device was nice and small, the backlit screen allowed me to read in bed after my husband turned off the lights to go to sleep. I could buy and download a new book from the comfort of my own home (or anywhere else with wireless) and receive it immediately.
I was hooked. A few months after I started reading on the iPod, I realized I wanted a bigger screen and a better display for reading books. My birthday was coming up (which means it was just about a year ago), so a Kindle went on my B-day list. I’m pretty cheap, even when someone else is buying my gift, so I went for the lower priced non-3g model.
And oh, what a wondrous time it’s been this past year. I’ve always been a voracious reader, but I’ve probably upped my reading by 15 or 20 percent. I seem to fly through books now, even with the slightly more awkward button click instead of touch screen technology. I love-love-love my Kindle, only putting it down this last year to read maybe 2 or 3 print books.
What’s kind of funny about this is that I still read a “dead tree” newspaper. Yeah, I read many articles on the web, but I enjoy the tabloid format of an actual Sacramento Bee. Until we have a holographic substitute that I can “hold” and is as big as a current day newspaper, I’m sticking to paper for my morning read.
But my pleasure reading–all e, all the time. I love you, Kindle.