Kindle guilt

The kindle app on my iPad was a godsend when I had cataract surgery recently, I’ve gone from being shortsighted to being normal sighted but needing reading glasses, but had to wait several weeks for my eyes to heal. I was able to expand the text on the iPad. . Normally though I prefer real books. Browsing the bookshelves in second hand shops and charity shops is a great joy.

I’m another one with awful eyesight, Kindle is just so much easier to read. I miss real books though but in my defence I’ve got hundreds that I’ve bought/read in the past. I also still buy non-fiction ‘coffee table’ type books as they’re nicer than electronic versions and buy a fair few books as presents. I can’t resist a second hand bookshop either as you often find things that wouldn’t be on Kindle.

If you buy books or ebooks from Hive.co.uk they will give a percentage of each purchase to a local independent bookshop of your choice.

I feel the same but my eyes are fucked so I’m kindle all the way.

However, I use my independent bookshop a lot. If there is a book I love I will buy a ‘souvenir’ copy, often independent bookshops have limited editions or signed copies.

I also always buy children books as gifts from the bookshop- all my nieces and nephews.

And I go to events when they put them on.

so I support the bookshop whilst not actually reading the books.

Requested and received a Kindle for Christmas. I asked for one because I cannot store real life books anymore. I love a real book, and I know they can be passed on, but I'm looking forward to not having to find new homes for paperbacks.

The trouble is there are so many shite books published. DK I'm looking at you. That if you paid full price for them you'd be gutted. I've got Kindle unlimited so I can borrow a book and have to say I am lucky if I finish one in ten of them. I'm a member of our library and that has more books that people have ordered in to read than books on the actual shelves it seems.
If I like an author I will buy the physical book... Harlen Coburn is a recent discovery

I resisted buying a Kindle for a long time but I love it... I read a LOT and we're running out of space to store all my books. It's especially useful on holiday if I've not had time to plan my reading, I can just buy books there and then and they don't take up space in my suitcase. I still buy paper books, but not as many.

I buy ebooks for my kindle and just read them, every single thing a human do they can spend their life being guilty about, why? how does it help anyone?

Team kindle here too! I prefer the feel of it in my hand and saves me cluttering my house up with books. Also we're saving the trees surely by not buying paper books? 😂

I went from books to kindle to audio books (I have a reason). Not that it matters. A book is a book. Least your reading.

Don't worry, my dc's obsession with dogman will outweigh your kindle use.

I know what you mean OP. My book reading is mostly on Kindle. Still, I have a very slight but unshakeable feeling of guilt that I’m not reading print.

I try to remind myself that 99% of books published every year are crap and that they’re no longer the relatively expensive things they were when I was a child. I can’t quite escape the irrational respect for paper though!

I've not bought a physical book for years. I absolutely love my Kindle. I feel no guilt over it at all. How far could you go thinking like that? Should we all use the local farm for milk? Local greengrocer and butchers instead of supermarkets? Never buy anything online, all furniture from local stores instead of big chains? Holiday at a local caravan park or air B&B?

I read a lot, and haven't bought an actual book in probably 15 years. No medical reason, (and I don't steal them 🤣)

Think of all the trees you’re saving! Don’t stress mate

Kindle all the way for me and absolutely no guilt , my daughter does a mix of kindle and books . According to my Kindle unlimited 2025 review on Amazon today I read 72 books last year and was in the top 11% of Kindle unlimited readers .

A Kindle sounds perfect for you.

However if you wanted to support your local bookshop could you occasionally buy two or three children's books and donate them to a school or family centre?

For full disclosure, frequent buyer of real books, both new and secondhand, no Kindle, vegan for the past few decades.

Yes, I feel like that about some paper used in books too. It seems hard to find books with the ‘right’ ( to me) sort of paper now. I can’t cope with the rough, scratchy sort that so many publishers use now ( I think Vintage publishers are bad for this) I’m sure people think I’m Princess and the Pea, but, like you, I literally can’t buy certain physical books even if I really want to read them!
OP, I know what you mean but it seems to me you have good reason to have to use your Kindle, so I don’t think you should be making yourself feel bad here.

I have a kindle but still buy books sometimes. If I particularly love the cover or now and again if it’s literary fiction and I think I’m going to really love it I’ll buy the book but the rest of the time and for more easy read disposable fiction I’ll buy the kindle version.

I don’t eat chicken but I only buy free range eggs.

Indy bookshops are great because they pick out the really interesting books you never thought of buying and lay them infront of you to entice you to buy. Whereas Waterstones etc lay any old shite they’ve been bunged some cash to help shift. It could be good. It’s probably not.

Just looked up that book it sounds brilliant thank you!

I read my kindle but buy books for my mum at least once a month.

I’m an early Kindle convert too. I’m on my third one now. However, I always request a book or two for Christmas and birthdays, usually a hardback that I’ve been lusting after. I also often buy second hand on World of Books, and like surprising people by sending them a book in the post.

This year’s Christmas book is Lise Doucet’s ‘The Finest Hotel in Kabul’.

Kindle for me. And my daughter is a book shop manager!!!
i no longer enjoy physical books (though I still have hundreds). I simply currently prefer the reading experience of a kindle (and holding a physical book at the right angle hurts my wrists!!) I do feel a bit guilty though

On the other hand we buy the best quality meat we can 😂

I would love to read books but the print is so small nowadays I just can’t.
I’m shortsighted, I don’t know maybe I’m getting something else as well but the print is so unbelievably small, it hurts physically after reading half a page. So I have no choice but to use Kindle.