Kindle guilt

[sunshineandkindle]

Now this could be my anxiety but I am feeling very guilty for not buying my books from bookshops anymore and instead using my kindle. I find holding a book painful (i have fibromyalgia) and have 100s of paperbacks some of which i will unlikely read now since using a kindle makes it painless as I have it hands free.
I realise writing this I do sound a little nuts. I just prided myself on buying books from my local independent bookshop and feel very guilty. Is anyone else in a similar situation?

I feel guilty about buying and eating chicken. I try not to think about it.

I am the same as you I rely on an eReader to read books because I have a condition that affects my strength and my vision.
I love real books though and I want to support bookshops. One thing that I do is buy people gifts of books for birthdays and Christmas etc. sometimes I even just surprise a family member or friend with a book I think they will enjoy.

I voted you are being unreasonable because I think you are being unreasonable to feel guilty if that makes sense?!

I have the same feeling from time to time. I massively prefer my kindle. I find the sensory experience of many books unpleasant. If the paper is not exactly right, touching it annoys me and distracts from my reading pleasure. I was a very early kindle convert. Yet, I still feel a bit wrong for not buying physical books anymore.

Last time I went into the teen fiction section of Blackwells to get my daughter a book with the hope of getting her back into reading it was literally wall to wall trans. Nothing else. Fuck em.

I do only ever buy free range chicken though. I’m not a total animal!

LOVE a good Indy book shop though and will always support it.

Kindle all the way for me.

No guilt at all

It never ends OP!

I buy second hand books from world of books but feel guilty about not using my library 😂

You'd just find something else to feel guilty about

Yes kindle, no to non free range chicken. It's fine op. Not your responsibility.

I had always thought EReaders were better as it saves trees - but now I read that electronic storage is also a problem. Seems like you can’t win.

Big kindle reader here. No guilt. Things change and the world moves on.

I don’t eat chicken though .

I love printed books, but I no longer buy them. I've got thousands of them and I've got no more space. But I don't get the love for independent bookshops and I never cared where my books came from.

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.

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’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’.

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

Just looked up that book it sounds brilliant thank you!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 .

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

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