E-Reader Debate Decided: Why I Hate My New Kindle

My wonderful husband chose to get me a Kindle 2 for our anniversary this year. I felt so shocked. I hadn’t quite made up my mind on what was the right e-reader for me, he had spoken out harshly against the Kindle, but when I opened the box, I just stared at it, sort of numb. Of course, I kissed him a lot and truly appreciate the gift. I immediately slid my new Kindle into its cover and downloaded some books from Feedbooks and went to town. So if you see my “reading list” page expanding rapidly this month… you now know why.

The Kindle… is perfect. It fits in my purse, even the smallish ones that I lean toward carrying. I’ve never been a fan of cavernous bags that you could stuff a small child in, so I was surprised that it fit into my smaller fossil bag just fine and still left room for other things. The leather case is all right, there are nicer ones, but I love the felt lining. It feels so good in your hands while you’re holding the device and best of all, I can take my Kindle out onto my deck and read, comfortably, with little glare and little eye strain… in full, direct sunlight.

That’s a lot to love.

So you must be wondering why I said I hated it.

Last night, I downloaded my first Kindle book over Whispernet. It was 12:30. I’d just finished reading Carmilla and had chewed through the public domain stuff that I’d found at that moment and then I remembered that Guy Kay had a book out that I hadn’t read, so I clicked on “Buy Books” and entered the title in the search bar, clicked on it and the book was mine.

It happened so fast, that I was not even aware that I had just dribbled money into Amazon.com’s coffers.

I will never buy another book this way again.

It’s way too easy. Way too easy to forget that you are spending money, too instantly gratifying and I cannot imagine it having any positive effects on my checking account. Everything else about the Kindle aside, this fact alone makes it dangerous once placed in my hands. I love reading, I love finding excuses to hide in a corner of the house and curl up with a book.

In this case, my new Kindle is a deadly weapon, doomed to tear my family apart because it will have to be pried away from my cold, dead fingers.

Thanks hubby. *smooch*