I used to be seriously, obnoxiously opposed to ebooks. I said things about needing the smell of paper, about not being willing to give up the fetish of turning the page. I was so, so sure I wanted nothing to do with them. Then we were expecting our second baby in 2010, and Billy remembered far better than I did just how much time I spent lying around nursing Kiddo when he was a baby. He remembered how sore my wrist and fingers would get from straining to hold a book open to read with one hand for an hour or more at a time. He bought me a Kindle. I was…less than grateful. Then the girlchild arrived and I devoured three books via Kindle a week while lying around nursing her, with no wrist pain. Bonus: she never once got bonked on the head by a hardcover slipping out of my hand. The only thing I really didn’t like about the Kindle was that I could only feed it through Amazon. I hated being bound to them like that.
Last year we got an iPod Touch and I switched to reading books on that with the Kindle app. There was still the Amazon issue, but it was even easier to hold, since I can cradle it in the palm of one hand, and with the backlit screen I don’t need to constantly adjust a booklight to be sure I’m not shining it directly in the sleeping kid’s face. I don’t read while the girl is awake and nursing–that just seems rude–but there is so much time at naptime and bedtime when she’s nursing and dozing, asleep but not yet ready to let go of that latch. I’m now back to reading most books in the regular paper version, but I keep one ebook on the go at all times for that nursing and dozing.
I’d hoped to switch from Amazon and the Kindle app to using Overdrive to read ebooks borrowed from the library, but frankly the selection is pretty slim. Mostly bestsellers of the sort I have no interest in. So now I’m an ebook convert, but still resenting having to support the great gobbling mouth that is Amazon. What’s an independent-bookstore-loving reader to do?
Good news! The crops are saved! Well, maybe not, but…hey! Look! A much, much better option is now available. Indiebound! (I heard about it from Rachael.) We can now buy ebooks from our local independent booksellers and read them on our various e-devices! Here’s the selection at my local bookstore.
Right now I’m reading These Dreams of You on the iPod, purchased from Amazon because I didn’t yet know about this Indiebound business. My next ebook, though? It’s coming straight from Powell’s. Pretty damn sweet.
I’ve been brewing a post about format not mattering as much as I thought it might. Glad to read your take!
I was pregnant in 2010 and got a Nook for the same reasons as you. Book worm that I am, I totally love my Nook. What sold me on the Nook over the Kindle was the fact that it will display any ePub file. I do buy books from B&N, but have more options, as well as Overdrive from the library.
I don’t regret getting an ereader and don’t miss paper books one bit! I travel alot nd it’s great to toss my reader in my bag and have no worries that I will ever be without something to read. Now, as for what knitting and yarn to take….there’s no cure for that I am afraid. LOL
I love that I can now buy my ebooks from indie sellers. Thanks for posting!
That does sound pretty sweet. As a soon to be nursing mother I find the idea very interesting. I’ve been thinking about getting an iPad for similar reasons.
Emily, I HIGHLY recommend some kind of device like that. You’re about to start spending an awful lot of time sitting and lying around.
I read both kinds: analog and digital. I don’t see why the debate has to be an either/or…people will like and dislike things about both, and there will be times when you want one over the other.
I started out with a Sony Reader, and this year I upgraded to a Kobo Reader (I think it’s the equivalent of the Nook in the US). The quality of the display is much, much better these days – it’s really quite something.
And in the print world – more books being reprinted as art editions, with fantastic hard covers and wonderful papers. I like how the print world is rising to the challenge (Penguin Classics series is doing an amazing job).
Awesome! I knew about Google Books, but not that I can funnel the money to my local bookstore. That’s the best news I’ve heard in a while. I was like you until comparatively recently – extremely anti-ebook. I’m becoming more of a convert now for train reading. So much less to carry. Plus, I get through much more of my New Yorker digitally than I did in print, since I don’t have to remember to shove it in my bag.
I bought a Kobo reader when Borders had their last sale. You can buy books from a lot of sources, and there is an app for my phone and my laptop. Plus, it was worth the horrified looks on strangers faces when they saw I had bought a reader from a soon to be defunct store. I love dumb people.