Books or 'kindle' ??

[taffleee]

I love reading books. I love buying them, owning them, reading the pages, turning the pages, putting a book mark in, going back to them, everything about reading a book I love!!

I also own a kindle, and have tried reading a book on it, but I just don't get the same enjoyment!! I would hate to think we would loose books because of the 'online' automatic download culture we seem to be breading??

Am I on my own here??

[taffleee]

Oh the feel and smell of a book, especially old ones that you know havee been read and loved!!! Isn't there just something special in that??

Yes, the kindle for 'reading purposes', but wouldn't it just be a shame if books were lost to this??

I still miss 'taping the charts' (record, play, pause) of the radio!!! Just those things you looked forward to!! Everythings so 'on hand' nowadays!! (i'm 34 btw, how ancient do I feel!! lol!)

[MiddleAgeMiddleEngland]

Books for me, I don't have a Kindle.

I'm interested in the actual book; the design, the illustrations, the dust jacket if there is one, the typefaces used, the type of paper etc, etc. It's not just about the words.

I also love the smell of books, especially old ones. Perhaps one day they'll have a "emit booky smell" button on a Kindle?

I take them on holiday, on trains, on buses, to the dentist, etc. My bag isn't complete without a book or two (or three or four).

We'd need a serious re-build and re-decoration project if we were to get rid of our books. Virtually every room has built-in bookshelves and we have freestanding bookcases as well. I like living in a library, it feels cosy. Visitors are welcome to browse and borrow.

The teenage DCs are the same, they love real books and don't want Kindles.

Tomorrow I will collect a book I've ordered. It will have a gorgeous dust jacket, lovely thick paper and a sewn in silk ribbon bookmark. Can't wait

[Iaintdunnuffink]

I didn't think I'd ever really get into e-readers, now I don't bother with physical books. My Kobo is easy to hold, I read lots in bed and it's nice not have to battle to keep it open. My eyesight isn't great and I can adjust the print size. For Christmas I'm getting the Kobo Aura so no more faffing with lights when it's dark.

I used to love owning books.

[TheNunsOfGavarone]

Another thing in favour of Kindles for me at least is that it's difficult to take a sneaky flick forward and see what's going to happen. It's a very annoying habit of mine so I like that I can't do it so easily on Kindle. But then if I want to recap it's more difficult to flick backwards.

[PeasandCucumbers]

I definitely prefer real books, I have read a couple of books on a Kindle app and the thing that irritates me most is not being able to flick back to check who characters are or details of the plot.

I have 2 DC and also really agree with Mcnorton that there are so many amazing books for young children that can't be replicated in the same way electronically. My daughter is 7 and reads more than anyone I have ever known. We use the library a lot and she also has loads of books from charity shops and car boots which we can pick up for literally pennies. However my son (had to use this icon & he loves Dr Who ) has a visual impairment and both my big bug bears are around accessing books for him. The first is that the font size in so many children's books make them inaccessible for him so the Kindle is great as he can adjust the font size. However the children's books on Kindle are so expensive, several we have looked at are more expensive than buying the actual book off amazon which really infuriates me.

[Glitterfeet]

Peasand

Could this be useful? Depending whether he is eligible.

www.nbcs.org.uk/customeyes

[sammylou35]

That sounds good to me!! I have already hinted to my husband so I shall have to see what santa brings me!

[PeasandCucumbers]

Thank you Glitter that's a great link, I wasn't aware of these books

[Louise1956]

A kindle is useful if you are travelling or on holiday or something, but in general I much prefer real books.

[Lieby]

Totally agree. Love my kindle, having dithered for a while about getting one. I particularly like reading a book review in the guardian on sat then downloading something I like the sound of, rather than having to wait for amazon or go to a shop.

[sykadelic15]

Definitely Kindle. I have a Kindle Paperwhite. It's side-lit (as opposed to back lit) so it doesn't hurt your eyes... which is the entire point of the e-Ink display that Kindle is famous for.

Never library. Especially after reading that article about how library books (specifically 50 Shades of Grey) were tested and found to have traces of herpes and cocaine.

The herpes wasn't in strong concentrations but apparently the cocaine was enough to show up as you having taken it in a hair test!!

I have hundreds of e-books. Free from Amazon. I can lend them to people (2 weeks is plenty of time) or you can give someone else your Amazon account details (obviously only if you really trust them, like I do mum) and they can just share that way :) My main gripe is that I can't mark a book as read. I would have to open it to see if I'm at the last page... and I've read hundreds of books this year alone so I'd love to "Archive" them or something.

[CoteDAzur]

Definitely Kindle.

I couldn't go back to carrying 1,000-page door-stoppers.

Everybody says "I love the feel & smell of books" etc until they get a Kindle, ime.

[DuchessofMalfi]

Oh sykadelic, that's just foul. I do try not to think about where my library book has already been, but urgghhhh :o

I admit to only borrowing a book if it looks in a reasonable condition. If it looks a bit stained and smells bad I'd rather buy my own copy. Stale nicotine and greasy food are the kinds of book smells/stains I can well do without.

I love my kindle, and I'm pretty fond of my little kobo as well which allows me to borrow ebooks from the library. Often a better option :)

[Cathycat]

I love both. Books because you can 'feel' the distance from beginning to end, it looks nice on the coffee table, I can lend one to my mum and I am very proud of my bookcases, what they look like, how the books are arranged, how I can always grab a book to explain something to the kids.

I always worry a little about overuse of trees and paper though - actually no I don't, but perhaps we should?!

My Kindle is good for if I am in a particular mood for a type of book. I can browse the try a sample! I love the 'try a sample'. at the moment I have 10 books on try a sample on my kindle and am reading a few pages of each one before I decide which one to go for. I keep the others there so that I know what to read next. Very exciting!