I just finished the first book on Kindle. What a pleasure!

I am particular with books. Not about the authors, or type of books, no. I am particular about the physical condition and presence of books. I do not like pages folded, do not like bend ridges, do not like lots and lots of side notes. Highlights and annotations are okay for certain books. I keep bookmarks, several of them, and for a while only use proper bookmarks exclusively. I love the smell of paper, love the texture of the paper from older books. Love the sight of beautiful hard cover books and admire the equally beautiful bindings.

Given my peculiar liking of books, at some point it became clear that I could not fully enjoy reading them. I had limited time to read at the desks, which means books would have to be stuffed in bags and potentially get pages folded. Reading while drinking means it would get wet and dirty every now and then. It was difficult to read hard cover books; too heavy to carry around, and too much care would need to go into it to allow it to be pleasurable. It was quite sad…

Even though Kindle and Nook had been out for a few years, I wondered whether I could switch to reading on a device rather than holding a real book in hand. I didn’t think I could.

Then I got a Kindle. What convinced me? All the free classic books available on Kindle for one. I always wanted to read more books. Being able to read for free without walking out the door is nice. And not having to throw books away every few years, not having to move 10+ boxes of books every time I move is a very attractive idea. Being able to have access to my entire library anywhere as long as I have acess to computer? Who could say no to that?

But it was still a question if I would enjoy reading. It took a bit of adjustment at first. Holding a physical book on one hand, and Kindle in the other. Switching font style and size and spacing for quite a while until I found “my” comfortable type. I didn’t expect having the option to change fonts was that important to me, and finally, reading. It is quite a different experience from reading a physical book for sure. But I think Internet changed all that. Most people are used to reading in digital format, like the webpages, e-magazines, articles, news online. After getting used to reading on computer monitors, reading on e-link is drastically easier on the eyes. And having a dedicated device for reading, it shields me from the distractions of emails and other websites.

After about two days of reading on Kindle, I found some extra benefits. First, I can carry it everywhere. Even big thick books are light enough. Second, I can buy a lot of cheap books without regret, because a lot of them are free and they do not take up spaces! Third, I don’t need to worry about spills or oily fingerprints any more. And although I cannot use my personalized bookmarks any more, it does save my reading spot automatically. Oh, and being able to try out samples first is especially great. Because being ebooks, it is not just the content that is important, but little things like table of contents, layout for paragraphs and chapters, pictures, spelling errors, all suddenly became a concern we normally take for granted.

After finishing the first book on Kindle, I can honestly say that I enjoy reading all over again. And this time, it is about reading and enjoying the contents, not about books any more.