Friday, November 27, 2009

Books

The Kindle is available in Canada now, and I can't decide if that's a good thing.

I'm an avid reader. I read books every single day. Amazon.ca is a favourite online haunt, and packages magically arrive from them almost every week. I love the program on Amazon for recommending books, based on my reading history. That program has helped me find all sorts of great books that I never would have thought to read otherwise.

Amazon and my bank balance? Not good friends.

I generally skirt around that little detail, though. I just keep hoping that they'll work out their issues amongst themselves.

I love books. I love getting wrapped up in a great story, or falling asleep with a book can't bring myself to put down. I love the feel of them in my hand, and I like the looks of them on shelves. Some day, when I finally save up enough money, I'm going to build a library room in my basement. Most people have tv rooms or rooms for their pool tables. I want a room that's dedicated to books. I've been collecting books for this room for years, and have oodles and oodles of boxes of them saved up.

But, the ecologically concerned person in me says that if there's a more earth friendly option, I should give it a shot. If you read the articles online, Kindle fans are referring to the paper book as 'dead tree books'. They've got a point.

But.

I really don't see the appeal of electronically stored books. Will my nephews someday hand their own children a memory card, containing their favorite ebook from when they were kids? Somehow, that doesn't seem as nostalgic as when I gave them the torn up, wrinkled pages of WhataMesstheGood.

That, and every cat needs a bookshelf upon which to lounge.


I want to want a Kindle. I want to be the person who steps up to do the ecologically responsible thing.
I just don't think it's going to happen, though. At least, not for a good, long while.

3 comments:

  1. I would Kindle but I never go anywhere that I couldn't carry a book. And I cherish how good a book usually smells.

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  2. Janice you have blogged about one of my top favorite 5 things in life. BOOKS. I can't, won't, couldn't Kindle. Check out my blog entry At the Farm with....I just have to hold, smell, turn the pages of books. Collect them too. I have built in book shelves in our bedroom and our livingroom. I haven't even begun to fill them up because I can't bare to think what would happen to them when I die. Who would love them as much as I do. I have a copy of Mrs. Miniver that I bought from Amazon. I love this book. The book was written in 1940 and there is a handwritten, with a fountain pen, dedication. A Katherine Collins
    Katie from Stella
    January 23, 1941
    It just warms my heart to think that 10 years before I was born someone else turned the pages of this book. I could go on and on about books but not here in this little comment box :)

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  3. I remember that post, Pix, and it's exactly what I was thinking. Books have a history to them that ebooks can never have.

    My dad's got a set of books that were my Grandad's when he was a kid. They're mostly poetry and Shakespeare that my Grandad studied in the twenties. They've been on display at my parents' place for as long as I can remember.

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