Reading on a Kindle

Before the summer, I took one of our library Kindles on a test drive.  We got on quite well, and I quickly started looking at the Kindle as 'my book' instead of a device.  I decided to keep reading the Song of Ice and Fire series as ebooks to save my poor hands from breaking under the weight of brick sized books, and to test out the new Kindle model, which I far prefer.  

Today I finished the last book in the series published so far and it dawned on me that I have been reading the same series since August.  Five books. In five months.  This is far, far below my regular reading level.  So what's been going on? 

Part of it is down to the books, or should I call it the text?  I have loved reading this series, but found that after book 3, my attention started to wander but I had already committed myself to these characters and didn't feel as though I could stop*.  And with the eformat so easy to read, so light in my hands, I didn't feel reluctant to pick it up, as I usually would with tomes this size. When I've grown tired of previous serials, my hands have grown physically tired of holding them, I've grown tired of the covers.  This didn't happen with the Kindle so I kept going.  In a way, I wish I hadn't. Five books.  In five months.  When there are so many wonderful books waiting to be read, I've been left feeling a little cheated. 

Though I'm very fond of the Kindle and now have one all of my very own (wooo birthday!), I have come to a realisation.  My reading experience with it so far has been hugely positive, and being able to up the font size when suffering with tired eyes has been a complete godsend.  But I miss paper.  I miss the smell and I miss the ache in my hand from reading for too long. I miss the sense of progression through a book as the balance of pages read and unread starts to shift. The little percentage line at the bottom of the screen just doesn't do it for me.  Having the option of an ereader is wonderful, and its uses are many.  I'm very glad I have one and know that I will use it a lot in the future.  But it's also quite comforting to realise that at heart, I'm a book reader.  Long live ink, paper, string and glue.

*Smart move, George R.R. Martin.  Smart move. 

Kindles

Over the summer I test drove a Kindle on behalf of the library (I know, sometimes you've gotta just take one for the team) with a view to buying a small set for the library.  To my surprise, I didn't hate it.  My only interraction with them previously was a quick, 'Ooh, can I have a look?' when my brother got one, and I confess I didn't like it then at all.  The plastic felt horribly plasticy, the buttons were clicky and it made my eyes hurt when it flashed up the next page in negative before it 'turned'.  But when it was my only readng option, I quickly found that I forgot about the device and concentrated on the words.  Within about a week, I found myself saying that I was going to read my book.  Then after three weeks travelling and not breaking my back lugging around all of A Song of Ice and Fire, I realised that I loved it.

The decision to purchase a set for the library though required more than that.  Three things happened within the space of a week that made up our minds.

1. Amazon joined up with Overdrive to offer Kindle lending through US libraries.
I think this will spread to the UK pretty quickly and Kindle's position as the dominant e-reader is a lot stronger.

2. A fellow school librarian recommended an e-book management app called Calibre, which means that it would not only possible, but also relatively easy to transfer single books to clean Kindles.   One concern was that if we were issuing full Kindles with our full collections on them, we'd have a) no way of noting down which books were being borrowed and b) no way of checking suitability.  Game of Thrones is not suitable for Year 7s, but Year 10 will LOVE it.

3. The new Kindles were released.  Smaller, simpler, with fewer clicky buttons and a lower price tag.

Sold.

So our first five Kindles are on the way.  We'll trial them, see how the students react and go from there.