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Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella was the first e-book I’ve read.

 

It was 2010 and I worked for few weeks on a night shift so I resorted to it just to save my sanity. I enjoyed it because my favorite author wrote it but I knew then that e-book is not really for me. I don’t know how to try Kindle without being so overly dramatic about it.

 

I love holding the book in my hands and the smell of its pages. I truly feel whatever it wants me to feel so I never read e-book again. I collected books like how I collected cute dresses, shoes and other trinkets I lay my hands on. I was once a victim of wanting to have more too.

 

Moving overseas twice left me brokenhearted for the shallow reason that I couldn’t bring all my books but I didn’t want to pay extra for additional luggage.

 

Knowing myself, I will never stop buying books. I left my books along with my mountainous magazine collection. It was a pain but I need to move on with my life. I needed to practice the minimalist approach and live like a nomad everyday. The lesser things I own, the more space I have for those that really matter. The lesser the clutter, the better I can think and the freer I can move.

 

I ate my words when my German host mother told me that the house will be repaired and we needed to bring all our stuff in the basement to make way for all the work. Floor boards need to changed and the walls need to be painted.

 

I was happy to see that I don’t have tons of clothes and shoes. But my books? I couldn’t believe how much I have accumulated for such a short time. I couldn’t figure out how to bring them all down without help.

 

Reality slapped me hard. I have seven bags of books and I still couldn’t promise not to buy again.

 

Reading is the best thing I do for myself. (As I type this, I just bought The Universe Has Your Back . ) I am still convinced that investing in myself is very essential in the sabbatical that I am taking. This is for the recovery of my soul.

 

I think I might consider buying an e-reader though just by declaring that, already made my heart weep. My boyfriend saved the day by offering his Kindle just so I can try it. He doesn’t have the reading bug that I do and only needs it for long haul flights. I just wanted to give it a try. After all, it is not so expensive. If I will buy one and realized that it isn’t really for me, then I can give it away as gift or resell it.

 

After showing me how it works, I immediately told him what I wanted to read and just after few minutes, the book has been downloaded to the Kindle and off I started reading. I didn’t have to go to the bookstore nor had to wait for the delivery.

 

The first few minutes were awkward. I was in bed and being right-handed made my left hand feel useless. It also went numb after more than fifteen minutes of expecting to do something but didn’t. My entire system was aware that I was reading and that I must be doing it with two hands but it took a little longer time of getting used to doing it with just one.

 

Twenty minutes into reading, I had a real separation anxiety. I miss the pages of the book and its smell. Though it helped that the book I chose was a pageturner, I still felt that something was not right. The first night with Kindle wasn’t enough to decide whether I like it or not. I need to finish the book to really know how I feel about it.

 

 

Pros:

 

1.My bag is so much lighter.

 

I can’t not read just one book If a book is incredibly boring despite how much other readers found it good, I drop it and move to the next and find some other moment to read it again. So I am so used to having two to three books in my bag. It was easy as thousands of books can be stored in Kindle.

 

2. It is so convenient.

 

The books can be bought from Amazon in just some clicks after reading the reviews. No Amazon account? Sign up here.

 

3. E-books are a little cheaper than the physical books and be shared with friends and family. There are also a lot of books that can be read for free.

 

4. Kindle frees a hand for me. 

 

I’m really dependent to public transportation so during rush hour and it’s full, I can still read without me having to worry of falling. Kindle allows me to hold on to the handrails while reading. Turning the page is easy too by just pressing the strategically placed buttons on both sides.

 

5. Travel time is more bearable.

 

Cons:

 

1. I am now always paranoid that it will break inside my bag though it has a protective case, I now always need to be more careful not to carelessly dump my bag on the floor like when I know that it was just books I have inside it.

 

2. I also now can’t just flip the pages and go back easily to where I wanted to.

Sure the newer Kindle versions make “fast-forwarding” and “rewinding” a breeze but I still miss that I can just do that quicker in my books.

 

3. I couldn’t bring it in the bathtub.

 

4. Flight attendants will always ask for it to be switched off when taking off and landing. A bit hard to explain that it is an e-reader that doesn’t use or require current being an electronic device.

 

5. Since it is battery operated, it can die on you so it requires charging too.

 

6. If there’s no WIFI, then you can’t buy new books when you run out of books to read.

 

Despite having withdrawal syndrome and the feeling that I am officially betraying my books, I still continued to read.

 

When I finished Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents,  it was so easy to say that it isn’t for me but it is not fair to conclude only after one book. I needed to try it a bit longer to be able to really say that I liked it or not. (He is now offering it to me for free while browsing through the latest models. hmmmm.) I then bought Elizabeth Gilbert’s Commited and Maya Angelou’s I know Why The Caged Bird Sings. Then Francisco Salgueiro’s I’m Naked What now? Is this how thrilled I am trying Kindle? I bought Stephan Orth’s  Couchsurfing in Iran two days ago and today, Gabrielle Bernstein’s The Universe Has Your Back as the sixth book for this month and I just know that a book review is following this post. You can read my previous book review here.

 

I am hitting my target of reading a book a week and actually exceeding it with Kindle’s help but I honestly couldn’t say goodbye to books. I am not in love with Kindle but at least I can say, I have the best of both worlds.

 

Will you ever ditch your books for Kindle? I’d love to know how feel about it. =)

 

 

Read Next

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This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, I will receive a small commission. This is at no cost to you but helps me to provide awesome content regularly. Thanks for your support!