I am in front of a computer screen so much, that I can’t say I have always been a fan of reading on-line. Plus, the tactile feel of paper has always felt like part of the reading for fun experience for me. I fought long and hard to stay with the printed book, and I’m not totally giving them up; however, there is just no room in this inn when it comes to more paper! Books, magazines, more books, fill my house and even my school office. After lugging a huge stack of books that had been piling up and trying to find room for them in my guest room last weekend, I finally came to the conclusion that I need to at least try to use an e-reader before I make any judgments one way or the other.

Of course, my timing isn’t so hot because I’m in the middle of two hard copy books now, but I went ahead and purchased a Kindle from Amazon. My feelings so far are mixed. It is very cool that I have four books on it already, free from the classic section, and I could literally carry these around now in my purse. I actually read one chapter from one of these freebies, The Picture of Dorian Gray. It wasn’t too bad holding the e-reader as apposed to holding a book. In fact, in some ways it was easier since I didn’t have to worry about pages flipping if I moved or breaking the spine since I tend to be rough with books.

The reading experience in some ways was the same, but in others, it is going to be something to get used to. For example, I tend to check the number of pages in a chapter. I don’t have hours on end to read for pleasure, but I can squeeze in an hour or half hour here and there, so I usually will check the chapter length. If it’s 10 pages, I’m good. I know I can finish that during my allotted reading time. With the Kindle, there are no “pages.” Instead, in the left corner of the screen a percent (%) sign is shown, and the number next to it increases as you read. Thus, after reading the first chapter I’m about 10% finished with the book.

The other surprise is the cost of e-books, which I thought would be cheaper. Sure, the classics are free, but they were before I bought this since there are lots of places on-line you can pick up older texts that are not not under copyright any longer. I have already compared prices on a few books of interest and realize the books are not any less expensive, and in some cases (since I can purchase decent used books off of Amazon), they even cost a little more. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Of course, going back to my original reason for getting the Kindle, saving space and portability, that may be worth the added expense.

I plan to tote this around this week and see how it goes. I have not found it at all to be a bad experience, but I’m not in love as yet. We shall see though. Maybe my Kindle will win me over this week.