When I told my husband what was at the top of my Christmas list for 2010 there was dead silence on the phone, followed by “Oh, my God! You said you’d never want that!”
No, not a divorce. And not another man in my life.
A Kindle.
(This is my Kindle in the video!)
Yep, I broke bad this Christmas and threw tradition to the four winds. I did not ask for a single book (usually the most wanted things on my list) only a Kindle. And yes, I had scoffed at them right after they came out. A friend of ours was showing one off and I looked at it politely, but said to my husband, sotto voce, “I will never want one of those. I love the feel of a book in my hands.”
The latter sentiment still holds true, but the former is gone with the wind. I LOVE my new Kindle. (It’s sitting beside me right now on the computer desk, a picture of Charlotte Bronte as the current screen saver, just waiting for me to take it to bed.) My husband may, in fact, find it to be his biggest rival.
I had never considered getting one before because I had been sadly behind the times in learning about the ebook market. I didn’t realize how many really wonderful writers are available only through ebooks and how easy it is to get those books if you have a Kindle (or Nook or other electronic reader).
The advantages to Kindle ownership have simply overwhelmed me. I can’t stop thinking about them.
#1 – You are NEVER without a book. I was floored to discover that I only have to hit a button and Amazon.com is at my fingertips, ready and eager to sell me as many novels as I wish for, IMMEDIATELY. No more “Oh, I finished that one. Now I have nothing to read.”
#2 – It’s green! Not the body of the Kindle, which is grey, but the medium itself. No more trees need be sacrificed to feed my voracious appetite for books.
#3 – It hold thousands of books (I think). Or at least a whole lot. Which means I will never have to buy another bookshelf. They currently line the walls of my home like wallpaper, but I can start a campaign to buy a lot of the books I have as ebooks and then I can donate my paperbacks and hardbacks (well some at least) to the thrift stores. I wonder what color my walls really are? Perhaps I’ll have a clue by next year.
#4 – It represents a whole new market for my novels. If I cannot get an agent, I can query epublishers who don’t require one. And articles are springing up regarding the use of Kindle & such devices spurring on sales in romance and erotica because the anonymity is attractive to many people.
For a link to one of these articles click here:
http://www.onpublicspeaking.com/kindle-romance-fastest-growing-segment-in-e-books/4603/
My Kindle will make my reading experience this coming year more pure pleasure than ever before. And first thing tomorrow I am going to throw away my tiny little purses and invest in one that is big enough to carry my Kindle with me wherever I go. One simply must get one’ s priorities straight!
Do you have an electronic reader (or was I the only clown without one?) and if so how has it affected you as a reader?
Jenna Jaxon Romance--because passion is timeless. 
I chose a Sony. I didn’t like that Amazon had so much access and control on a kindle, and I knew I couldn’t have a one click access to books. I’d send waaay to much money. So, although I won’t ever get rid of buying paperbacks, there are a lot of digital books that will never be seen in stores that I would miss if I didn’t have a reader.
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I’ve heard great things about Kindles:)
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Like someone else said, I’m late to the party, as usual. I don’t have one, have never wanted one. But they sell them at my job, and I stop by to play with the display from time to time and am finding that I like them more than I thought I would. My birthday is in about six months…..we’ll see.
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I heart my Kindle. My husband and I both bought 1st generation Kindles when they first came out, and got hooked immediately. We had literally *thousands* of paper books and moved them wherever we went, which was expensive and impractical. Now we have next generation Kindles (I have a DX, which is the large-format version), and we sold the majority of our thousands of books to a used book store (making a tidy sum, I might add), and don’t have to move them or store them. We kept first editions and things not available in eBook format. And, yes, I’m pretty sure that if you’re selling eBooks to publishers you can write the Kindle off your taxes. But, of course, it has to be written off against writing income…so that’s not for everyone.
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I’m still a little leery about getting one. I guess because I have just found a love of reading (within the past 2 years) I still enjoy having pages to flip and bookmarks to place to hold my spot. Maybe once I’ve accumulated enough books, I’ll embrace the e-readers. But right now, I’m a paper book junkie…lol
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I go kicking and screaming with every new fad. I finally got a myspace and everyone was at facebook. Got there then peeps went twitting. I may get there, one day. Late to the party as usual.
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Got my Kindle in October when the new (cheaper) edition came out. Love, love, love it. I have about 900 books on mine so far with only 1/2 the memory full. The only negative is that with that many book I have to have library software on my laptop to keep track of them all. Kindle could have better organizational options.
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LOL, hey, when I get my kindle I’ll have an office expense. I’m going to ask my husband’s accountant about writing it off, hehehe.
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Being a self-employed, we surely can!! Yippee – an office expense! LOL
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Yep, lol, tools of the trade! And yes, I wonder if we could write our kindles off on our taxes, hmmmmm, food for thought.
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I don’t have one yet–asked for one for Christmas, but by the time my husband made it to the stores they were all sold out, but my birthday is next months so hopefully I will get my kindle!!!! I’m so excited!
I was like you when Kindles and e-readers first came out–I said I’d never want one, but now I not only want one, I NEED one, LOL!
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We really do, Brenda. I’m reading Patricia Green’s GLEE and I don’t think it’s available in any other format, as so many others aren’t these days. If we want to work within the industry, we need to have/use its tools. (Great rationalization. I wonder if the Kindle would then be considered tax-deductable?)
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Actually, Glee is available as a paperback, but it’s ridiculously expensive. As you might imagine, a lot more get sold in the eBook format.
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I don’t have one yet, but man-oh-man do I want one! My kids want one! (we can share ’cause they’re not getting their own yet), my dad wants one too! I saw some knock-offs at the CVS during Christmas. But I just know that Staples will have one on sale for me soon. At any rate, I plan on getting one, just don’t know when. Glad to hear you love yours, Jenna. And like Lisa K. said, love the anonymity of what I read!
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My husband even wanted to play with it (in fact he downloaded my first book) and he doesn’t usually read books. He’s a magazine man.
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I have a Kindle and love it. No more unexpected trips to the bookstore–or Walmart if the book is available there. I personally love the anonymity of it. Imagine that–an aspiring romance writer who doesn’t like people to see her buying romance books. lol!
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Me too, Lisa! LOL! I have a Vera Bradley cover for my romance paperbacks so no one will know what I’m reading. Truly a guilty pleasure.
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