If someone asked me a few years ago to choose between kindle and regular books, I wouldn’t think a bit. I was always a big fan of books. I love their smell and being able to touch them, feel them, highlight parts and leave sticky notes. That way, when I return to the book to remind myself what it was about or to take out the quotes, everything will be clearly visible and easy to find. Also, the more books you have, the better they look on the shelf, right? 🙂
After reading my friend’s post about kindle (in Serbian), talking to her and being a book lover as I am, I decided I must buy it. I still read both printed books and kindle, but I mostly buy kindle versions of books because of the physical space. Trust me, the hardest part when moving into a different apartment is to move my library – it is very heavy and takes a lot of space. Also, I have found a way to buy kindle books for free or when they are on a huge discount (will share that in another post).
How did I fall in love with the kindle?
Well, thanks to its features. There are many different kinds, I have bought kindle paperwhite. It has a touch screen and no buttons so you change pages on the screen. Newer versions are waterproof (mine isn’t). The cheaper version is kindle, mid one is kindle paperwhite and the most expensive one is Oasis. You can check and compare the differences on the website.
The case you have to buy separately. Even though I am not a pink person, I am in love with the pink case 🙂 Let’s go through kindle‘s features:
It has a backlight
There is no need to have the light on in order to read. It is very convenient if you are reading while on a plane, on a train or if someone else is in the room and you don’t want to disturb them. With the backlight, you can read when it’s dark. Also, you can perfectly read and see everything when it’s sunny and bright, which is not the case with regular screens.
The screen doesn’t hurt your eyes
When looking at it, you have the feeling as if you are reading a regular, printed book. I can’t and don’t want to read books on tablets, laptops or phone. I already spend too much time during the day looking at monitors.
Highlight parts of the book
You can highlight favorite parts while you are reading and find it in the “clipping” folder on your kindle. Not only that you can highlight, but you can add notes as well.
Broaden your vocabulary
If you don’t know the meaning of a certain word, you can highlight it and it will show you the meaning (English to English translation, but this can work when reading in different languages as well). You can build your vocabulary and practice a different language other than your native.
For me, another great thing about the kindle is being able to read books in English. It is always better to read books in the official language of the author as translations can be bad. Also, it helps me to keep my English polished.
It can show Wikipedia results
You can highlight a certain phrase, name or part in the book and it will show you Wikipedia results about that part. You need Wi-Fi for this.
Customize font and size
You can choose the size of letters and how big is the space between the lines. Also, you can choose the font you prefer.
Borrow and land books
You can borrow and share books with other kindle users. I haven’t done this yet, but as I understood if you borrow your book to someone, you can’t read it on your device until that person gives it back to you.
Many books on one device
One device can have many many books. Wherever you go, take just this device with you and there is no way that you will run out of books to read. When going on a vacation, I used to take up to 10 books with me (and I would read them all). Do you know how much space I need for 10 books? And how much they weigh? Well, with kindle that problem is solved.
The battery lasts for weeks
The battery lasts really long. It depends, of course, on how much you use it. I forget when I charge mine. I think it’s about every other month when I use it moderately.
As with media, print is not dead and it won’t die. Many people read news online and on their mobile apps but newspapers and magazines still sell. The same is with books – kindle did revolutionize the industry and brought an invention, but it didn’t kill the books. It’s good to take the best of both worlds. Even if you are a print fan, give kindle a try 🙂
This post is not paid. It is my opinion and experience that might be useful to others so I decided to share it. Feel free to share it and subscribe to my mailing list. One of my NY resolutions is to send one newsletter per month – so watch out for that email 🙂
