Since we do live in a technology-shaped society – why not choose what suits us and our needs, and use it?
I don’t think everything new is automatically good – I’ve written about that on this blog more than once, especially when it comes to technology. But there are things that genuinely make life easier.
The Kindle Paperwhite is one of them for me.
Kindle and similar devices (e-readers, or e-books) will definitely never replace the classic printed book or libraries. Anyone who thinks otherwise is either too much of a technological optimist or simply naive.
No new medium has ever “killed” the previous one – they only changed and adapted to their successors. And so books will not disappear either.
A library in miniature, always and everywhere with me.
As both a student and a mother, I’ve found many arguments in favour of using the Kindle. The only thing I keep asking myself is: what was I waiting for all this time?
What Was I Waiting For?!
This applies especially to the first year of Sofka’s life, when I spent hours and hours sitting with her while she fell asleep, aimlessly clicking around on my phone or simply staring at the ceiling, longing for a good book.
Now I’m making up for lost time. The Kindle has a backlit display, so I can read it not only in any light, but in the dark too.
Nothing in this world can replace the smell and feel of a book in your hands. But I have to admit – the Kindle is practical. That much is undeniable.
Until now I always had one book in my bag, wherever I went. Now I have hundreds. Of course I don’t read all of them at once – one actively, or two alternating. However thick the books, their combined volume stays the same. Which is fantastic, especially for us mothers, who already carry everything possible and impossible in our bags.
Anyone who loves reading and travels often should, in my opinion, not think twice. Yes, a Kindle (or any other e-reader) is essential for you. It can hold several hundred e-books (not counting the option to store them in the cloud too). This is a clear advantage, because you don’t have to worry about space in your suitcase or bag, and you don’t have to worry about whether the book you chose to bring will be the right one for that moment. Because with a Kindle you always have so many books with you that at least one is bound to be exactly what you want to read right then and there.
Why It’s Perfect for Students and Mothers.
Since I treated myself to a Kindle, improving my foreign language skills has become far more active.
Since I study in a foreign language (German), where it’s a given that I read a large part of the literature in at least one other foreign language (English) – with Serbian as my mother tongue – I consider every act of reading to be learning. Whether I’m reading “heavy” philosophy or a light “beach read,” I always try to pull out at least a few unknown words or phrases.
The Kindle offers the option to click on an unknown word while reading and immediately see its definition in the Oxford Dictionary, with the option to translate it into another language, as well as an explanation from Wikipedia.
There’s also the Vocabulary Builder feature, which stores all the words you looked up while reading – so you can actively review them whenever you like.
A significant advantage of the Kindle for me as a student is that I can quickly and easily highlight a desired sentence or paragraph, and it’s automatically saved in a separate file. I can also add my own “comment” or idea, which is particularly important when writing academic papers.
Another very important advantage for me is that I can choose my own font, font size, and line spacing. Since I wear glasses and my eyes get tired from long reading sessions, these features matter enormously to me.
Honestly, I feel like I read faster on the Kindle – simply because I get more absorbed in the story, rather than unconsciously thinking about how many pages are left until the end of the chapter or book. The percentage I’ve read so far appears at the bottom of the page, and that’s quite enough for my orientation.
The Kindle automatically saves the place in the book where you stopped, so you never have to worry about whether you marked or remembered the page. It does that for you. And all the mothers who read know how important that is – because we get interrupted mid-read unexpectedly, more than once.
The One Drawback. And Even That Has a Solution.
The downside of the Kindle is that the format it supports is specific to Amazon’s e-book store, which means it doesn’t support epub files. On the other hand, the selection of books on Amazon is extraordinary and the prices are very affordable, so this rarely feels like a real issue – especially if you’re already an Amazon Prime member with free access to many books. There are also countless converters online that turn other file formats into the Kindle format, solving even that problem.
For me it was important that it supports PDF – because of the many books I scan at the university and then read on my laptop. Now I read them on the Kindle, and my eyes barely tire at all, or at least much less than when I was reading on a computer screen. That’s simply because an e-reader is built to give you the tactile and visual sensation of reading on paper – which is why reading e-books on a laptop, phone, or tablet can never under any circumstances be compared to reading on an e-reader.
True book and/or photography lovers will understand this: just as photos will never have the same quality when taken on a phone rather than a camera, you simply cannot put an equal sign between reading e-books on an e-reader and on a phone or tablet. Another important point in favour of this argument is the fact that the Kindle has no screen glare when a light source is directed at it, unlike a phone for example. Whether you’re reading in bright sunlight or under a lamp, neither will bother you.
And to tie all of this to my internet diet – since I got the Kindle, every moment I used to spend scrolling aimlessly on my phone is now spent on what I love most: READING.
None of this means I’ll never buy a book again or borrow one from the library. Far from it. It just means I’ll now choose much more carefully what genuinely needs a place on my home library shelf – and what I can either borrow from the library or read on the Kindle and then delete, since it doesn’t need to take up space.
Because you have to admit – not all books are equally valuable or worthy of being owned in physical form. Which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read the lighter ones with just as much enjoyment.
Now excuse me – I need to get back to my new companion, the Kindle Paperwhite. 😉
S-Mama
*This post is not sponsored – it’s the result of genuine admiration for the device in question.
Leave A Comment