I bought a book today. Nothing unusual, I buy a book most days. What was unusual was that I bought a physical book instead of the ebooks I usually download to my Kindle. When I decided to buy Watermark by Vanitha Sankaran, it wasn't just because Vanitha is a cool name (although it is), but also because it looked like a good story, set in a period that interests me. I went to trusty old Amazon to check it out. The book is available in paperback and Kindle formats. What to do, what to do. Price is about the same, so why the dilemma? Simple. There is back matter - a list of resources for further reading and suggested discussion questions for book clubs.
The Kindle is great for straight reading from start to finish. Not so great for trying to find a particular reference or flipping through pages to put a question to the book club.
I decided to buy the book itself. I wanted the back matter, and wasn't sure that it would be included in the Kindle version, and even if it is, it won't be as convenient to locate when I want to refer to it.
I love my Kindle, but sometimes ya just gotta have the real thing.
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4 comments:
Ah, how I loved reading print books.. but alas, no longer can.. so bravi books but also bravissimo any book that comes in book in a format I can access.
Nan Hawthorne
I couldn't agree more. I love, and I mean love, my Kindle, but certain books must be owned in print.
I haven't bitten the bullet yet but I know it's coming. All the reasons why Kindle or Nook or whatever are better are undoubtedly true. They're much more portable when going on vacation or traveling on business. You can probably carry the entire Library of Congress in your attache case.
Still, there's something about a book - the paper, the feel, the ability to connect without the interface that keeps me on the traditional side.
I love my Sony ebook reader. But one problem with ebook readers, some people have found, is that they cannot use bacon rashers to mark the leaves.
Quite seriously, this is a perennial problem in public libraries. There's a delightful thread at LibraryThing about the bizarre items that folk use to interpage books. Promotional stuffers by desperate self-publishing authors are the least of it...
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