This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
It's sort of a running joke between me and my mother that the day I got my Kindle was the day I became a 'traitor'. She even wrote it on the note (yes, she – along with my sister and stepdad – was the one who finally caved and actually BOUGHT it for me). However, she is my mother and the person who got me so into books in the first place. She is the woman who encouraged me to write at a young age and encourages me still today. She is allowed.
Nobody else is.
I have a Kindle because some of the books I read are quite simply enormous. As I do most of my reading on the commute, lugging a massive hardback on the tube is far from ideal. They're heavy and cumbersome and painful to hold one-handed (while the other grips onto the handrail for dear life). What's more annoying than lugging that enormous book on the tube every day? The looks of disappointment from the 'true book lovers' who parade their hard copy of a novel as though they are somehow better than me, as though their love of novels is somehow greater than mine because it comes on paper.
Having a Kindle has allowed me to read two ebooks not available in hard copy which I adored. It has also allowed me to download some free books I would otherwise never have picked up. I have delved into the classics I read years ago and discovered new books I would never have sought out were they not recommended on my Amazon page. I have also managed to read more than one book while on holiday and bring one with me that was so close to the end, had it have been a hard copy I probably would have left it behind.
In short, it has allowed me to read in a different way to what I have been used to in the past. It has opened doors to new books I would otherwise not have experienced. It has encouraged my love of books.
So for those of you who believe reading on an e-reader is somehow a cop-out or that it makes you a traitor (Mum, you don't apply to this rule), I see your love of books and I raise you a bad back, awkward manoeuvres on the underground and no space in your suitcase.
Do you think e-readers are the end of reading as we know it? As ever, let us know your thoughts in the comments.
And here, just to make you laugh…