This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Welcome to out brand new Friday feature, Novelicious Natters, in which we present a relevant book related topic and have a bit of a natter about it in the comments!
I've been resisting ereading for a while. At the dawn of this new phenomenon of books on screens my exact declaration was, I think, "I shall e-read when hell freezes over, buddy! When. Hell. Freezes. Over!".
I love me some books. You can see in the picture that I colour coded (a very small portion) of my books. You can stroke books and cuddle them. You can inhale the inky smell of freshly printed pages in a bookstore and kid yourself that you look like a quirky, passionate artsy type who simply cannot resist the inspiring stench of literary creation. You can't do that with an ereader because you would just be sniffing a kindle. A kindlesniffer. Snifferofkindles.
You catch my drift. I was firmly anti- ereading. That is until Tesco forced my hand just a few short weeks ago. They now have a range of kindles for sale. The link you see there is the price I paid for the delivery of a 
brand new kindle to my door. What choice did I have? £90 worth of free stuff is, at the end of the day, £90 of free stuff. The link is relevant to the site, this here is full disclosure. S'all good.
And so the Kindle plopped through my door. I'll admit I was excited. It was £90 of free stuff after all. I peered at it through narrowed eyes and noted it's slim physique. You will not seduce me, Kindle.
I logged on to Amazon, to the cold and unfamiliar kindle store. *shiver* Hmmm. If I ordered one of these books, it would be here in …seconds? An instant book? In the time it took me to blink (a little bit slower than usual), that novel could be in my house, ready for consumption.
And that's what changed my mind. Instant books! No-more waiting for my po-faced postman to knock on the door and throw a book-shaped parcel at my chest. I imagine my book to kindle delivery to be like that scene from Willy wonka, where Mike Teavee is shrunk and transported to a really fake looking telly via a million tiny pieces. It's super. I carry my kindle around with me like a modern day version of the Tamigotchi I adopted at age 14. I can snuggle into bed and decide RIGHT THERE what I'm going to read. I have a library at my fingertips.
I suspect the kindle and I are in a honeymoon phase. I can't help but feel I'm cheating on my books. And I do miss them. I do. There's a weight to books, a power that makes the very act of reading one feel special and sacred. The feel of the rough pages on your thumb and the comforting scratch of a turning page. Kindles are shit for cuddling. And you can't fall asleep reading a kindle because a kindle dropped on your face is just not as adorable as a book dropped on your face. And you can't inscribe a kindle book. And a kindle does not look good on a shelf, even if you place it on a Cath Kidston cushion with a bunch of daisies at it side (Not that I've tried that. Haha. As if!) it still won't look like a book.
I do wonder if I'm trying to convince myself…
Over to you. Are you ereading? Do you have a preference of ebooks or traditional books? What are YOUR thoughts?
(Kindle brought to novelicious courtesy of Tesco, who are now doing a range of kindles)