I sold my Kindle 2 on Craig’s List. I know several months ago I was raving about it – loved it more than life itself, etc, etc. It’s late October now and two things happened. 1) I needed to stop charging books to my credit card so I could pay it off. 2) I missed real books. 3) I missed real books from the library. The library is a place where they have tons of books they let you take home for free as long as you have a little plastic card. It’s amazing! Oh that is 3 things
I never thought I would miss real books – I am a “techie” – I love all things techie. I am typing this on a Macbook on the couch! I love the convenience of techie things. But I missed the tactile feel of books. I missed half priced book stores with their musty used book scent and the residual dust. I missed scoring 8 books for 8 dollars (or less) and carrying my winnings back to the car in a recycled grocery bag. I missed curling up on the couch with an actual book and letting the magic pour out of the pages as I turned them. I missed the magic.
The Kindle is a great device – yes it saves tons of room in your bag. And with the new Nook by Barnes and Nobles – the market is really just opening up with for ebooks and their functions and features. But they are technology and with all technology the things that are supposed to bring us together often drive us apart. Email – easy to stay in touch but do you get the same closeness of a handwritten letter? Cellphones – call anyone anytime but do you really want to talk to your BFF while they are in the bathroom?
Once again I am a techie by heart – photos of new gadgets have me drooling just like the next geek. But books are different. You can trade them for something you haven’t read. You can sell them for a bit of extra cash – to buy more books usually. You can loan them to your family or friends – knowing that one person who will really love the book. You can feel them. You can cherish them. You can keep that one or two books for a very long time rereading them when your soul needs a boost. Their plots, story lines and characters leap from the pages to your imagination. Books have character and need no batteries.
