Every so often the conversation among readers turns to the subject of Kindle (or whatever the preferred e-reader is) versus the feel of a real book. I appreciate both and as I posted some time ago, we came later to Kindle than some of our friends, but are now on I think our third or perhaps fourth version. Our enjoyment is grounded in practicality rather than an urge for technology for technology’s sake. We have filled and somewhat overfilled eight book cases/sets of shelves scattered throughout the house. Like many people, we cannot bear to throw away books unless they are truly falling apart and there are few places we can contribute them to. Therefore, adding more books does present a physical space issue.

Storage space on the Kindle is quite large which means I can (and do) have well over 100 books loaded. It’s also nice to be able to order and download a book within a matter of minutes. Traveling with a Kindle is certainly easier than packing one or more books and for those of us who have reached a certain age, being able to increase the size of the font at the touch of a button is a nice feature. Granted, there are still some things I prefer about “real” books,such as being able to quickly leaf back and forth if I want to re-read a passage or check to see how long it is to the end of a chapter. I admit, there may be an easier way to do this with the Kindle and I am simply unaware of how. I personally don’t own a tablet because I prefer my lightweight “notebook style” computer for travel, but several friends love their tablets and have the Kindle app which allows them to use it instead of a separate device. And in praise of “real books”, you never get the warning of, “Battery needs to be recharged”, when you are in the middle of reading.