My New Kindle by Yu-Han Chao
I just received, with mixed feelings, a new Amazon Kindle as a late Christmas present. I’d promised myself I would not get an electronic reader because I love books—love the way they smell, look, feel—and screen reading simply isn’t the same as reading from the yellow-edged pages of a worn library book with a disintegrating dustjacket.
Nevertheless, a few hours after opening the cardboard box, I went onto Amazon and looked for free Kindle books. Soon I had in my little tablet multiple classics, the Bible, Kat Magendie’s Tender Graces and some Harlequin comics. Then I emailed the Kindle my novel manuscript and short story collection, to “maybe look at” if I could face them while I waited in the airport on the way to and from the AWP conference this weekend. Then I looked up some more free ebooks about writing, including a collection of Noah Lukeman’s blog posts. I have the hardcover copy of his The First Five Pages. I also emailed the pdf files of texts I would be teaching next week, so I could go over them again on the plane.
As much as I feel like a traitor to all my beloved real books, it feels nice to know I can avoid checking luggage ($25!) and still have 20 books, 2 manuscripts, and class texts in my little tablet, which is only the size and weight of a tiny spiral notebook.
However, I’m not sure that I will begin buying Kindle books instead of real books, as the majority of Amazon customers seem to be doing. Just last week I bought Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, a slim hardcover book (an excellent gift for my mother) for $14.99 online. The Kindle version is $12.99, which seems a lot of money for something I can’t hold in my hand (not to mention a poor gift). Reminded of John Kennedy Toole by a blog post a few days ago, I hunted for a copy of A Confederacy of Dunces (I never quite got over how the author, depressed from rejections, killed himself, only to be published and receive the Pulitzer Prize posthumously). The Kindle version of A Confederacy of Dunces is $7.99 while the cheapest print copy is $4, including shipping. In the end, I stopped by the library and checked it out for free, a beautiful, brand new hardcover in blue leather and gold lettering.
It’s nice to have the option of a convenient electronic reader, but there’s still nothing like flipping a real page in one swift movement, like an expert page turner hired by a pianist to flip the page at the perfect time on stage, never interrupting the flow of the music.
Yu-Han Chao is Poetry Editor at Rose & Thorn Journal. Her poetry book, We Grow Old, was published by the Backwaters Press. Visit her writing and artwork.
I've been fighting the urge, but am about to give in - for the same reasons you noted. Although, I'll have to buy my own Kindle copy of Tender Graces, since it was on free for a promo and won't ever be free again - Dang!
But the idea of being able to upload my manuscript(s) and read them and take books with me on the airplane without worrying about extra weight -yes, this tempts me!
I will say, as to the costs - the author still works just as hard to write the book however it is published, so the cost of the book should reflect the worth of the words perhaps and not the forum it is presented? At any rate, I'm curious to see where all this leads for authors, readers, and publishers!
(and thank you for downloading TG! *smiling*)
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My husband bought me a Kindle for Christmas and I have mixed feelings about it. Light travel, hurrah! And it's nice to get things at once when I want them, say at 1:00 in the morning! And really, we can't handle any more physical books in this house. I am doing my annual purge of giving away those I won't likely read again. But I am going back and forth...I love paper. I can't loan my Kindle books because my friends don't have Kindles.A good thing for authors though, if I am an example, is that I am buying more books!!
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i've been resisting the e-book world, too. i also love the way a book feels in my hands, smells, sounds when the pages are turned. yes, all that!
but... 20 books and a manuscript in one handy place? that sure sounds nice!
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