Reading

Well here I am again, the inconstant blogger.  I have more time to write just now, and more time to read, so this will be about reading, and specifically in praise of the Kindle.  I've nothing against other brands but I'm not the BBC so need not display impartiality and I have little experience of other electronic readers.

I am a librarian and booklover, so of course I understand and share many people's feelings that Real Books are still of value.  Some would say they are far better - Mary usually reads them, and I often do, but often I turn to my Kindle and here's why.

First of all, I read in bed.  A heavy book can be difficult to manage, and if like me you often read when your partner is asleep, a Kindle is light enough to hold in one hand and its inbuilt light is a boon.

Secondly, and I appreciate this as a librarian, you can search text.  As I get older I often lose track of the names of people and places, and find it helpful to check back to the first or a previous reference.  Who was that?  When did the place crop up or what did the person do?  On a Kindle I can check quickly back and resume reading.

Thirdly, in my frequent need to read in a foreign language (my French is improving, but slowly) if I come across a word I don't remember or have never seen before I can quickly check its meaning through the built-in dictionary.  This is a real boon, and there is a way of noting newly discovered words in a vocabulary builder which, after a while, is a good read on its own!

Fourthly I get my daily paper first thing in the morning.  Paper copies are among the most famously cluttering things in many households I have known, often piled high in garages and spare rooms when their owners cannot bear to throw them out 'in case', but they are scarcely ever re-read after a day or two.  The online papers are not there for ever but for a couple of weeks you can search, then clip and store things that interest you.

People who cling fiercely to books and never read electronic text talk of the feel and form of a real book.  I share some of this feeling, especially having worked with older out of print books, but I realise that these become fragile and should finally be conserved and consulted via scanned copies or they will be damaged beyond repair.

I don't think I shall ever stop liking having books around, but they take space and collect dust - logically a Kindle is more environmentally friendly option, and it's amazing to think that there can be scores, hundreds, of books available in one small device, more easily stored and downloaded at will.  And as travelling with heavy books is ever harder, a single device with months of good reading in it is a welcome asset.