Starting A Book Club - Kindle Vs A Real Book

Hey ya’ll!

Hope everyone is well with what’s going on with, y’know, THE VIRUS!

I don’t mean to be sarcastic or disrespectful, but I am officially through with being so depressingly serious for so long I must release some cheeky humour into my life again!

Bit of background to my trivial debate! I want your opinion on this, fellow readers, book lovers, fans of the written word!

I adore books - always have done and always will! Always wanted to be part of a book club. I imagined a group of kindered weirdos like myself, from all different walks of life, like this secret societal underground meeting (kinda gonna be underground when the lockdown lifts because I am hosting our first meet up in the basement sub garden room, oh yes, with tipples)!

I went ahead and gathered a few new Mum friends, by a few I mean two - it’s bleak, because apparently no one has time anymore to read or no one wants too. I was already feeling a bit depressed by this point but grateful for my two little bookies and on we go. First girl picks, we all order the thing and they just drop in casually yes, kindle this and yes, audio book that. Now I am really depressed.

So here we go guys, another thing that doesn’t matter to anyone else but is practically do or die to me - am I crazy, or are Kindles the devil? And am I crazy, but isn’t it a bit insane that no one is gonna be reading a book when we are in a book club?!

I know, I hear you, the irony of me writing and reading on here, virtual, blog like - I have an online journal, I get it, I get it!!! But I also keep a diary, a physical one, and, my book shelves are brimming. It’s not a snob thing, but I love the physical object of a book like an old friend and I need it there, sitting there as a reminder of the time and future times we will have. It’s like music to me - I remember exactly when and where I was when I first read a book I love and I link a good book to a certain time in my life.

I’m not even going to get started on the experience of holding a book, of snuggling down with one under the covers, of propping one up, half damp, in a steam filled bath. The weird intimacy of holding a second hand book and seeing where someone has chosen to fold over the corner of a page or even annotate. The smell. The delicate yet sharp sound of a thin page turning.

And then there’s... swallow... the EBOOK. I can’t even type everything I feel is wrong with them. Okay ja, they have their merits in some small ways I’m sure and YES, if you were an author and 80% of your sales were going to come from ebooks surely you would have too... no, you would not, by the way.

I‘m an old romantic. I deal with technology when I have too, it doesn’t mean I want it or I like it. A book club full of kindles has got my back up. We need a dictatorship here, a dictatorship that says book club is for books people, not screens! By the way, these people aren’t blind or disabled, they can hold and understand a book. My question is why, WHY!? Why would you chose fake plastic flowers when you could have a bouquet of real ones?!

I get further and further into modern life and I don’t want it. I’m 30 now with two children and becoming a real crank. I saw an interview with Elon Musk and I don’t want any of it. He started talking about plugging into the virtual reality or something and I just freaked out and checked out at that point. I am inside my Georgian house here holing myself up against this horrible, inevitable, freaking bionic future or whatever the fig.

But now! For my request!!!! Let the anger begin! If anyone wants to reply - what’s your opinion? Do you love a Kindle? Do you hate them? Indifferent? Am I the savage here?

Maybe I need to be more politically correct and inclusive? A bit of vomit has just risen up my throat.

Hope you’re all well and still own a few books or I am gonna die.

Lo x

I have a lot of books and very little space. I thought I'd never go the route of the kindle (or nook), but not long ago I was seriously considering it.

I'm like up to my armpits in books. The simple act of cleaning this apartment is like solving a 4x4 sliding puzzle. And books are a b*tch to move.

But I never caved in to my impulse to buy the kindle. I don't know if I ever will.

One thing I really like about books (besides the tactile experience of reading them) is the fact that they're not blasting light into my eyeballs.

My boyfriend has a kindle and he reads comic books on it. THAT is really cool. Kindles and comics work well together.

Computer screens don't bother my boyfriend's eyes, though.

As for books on tape... I enjoyed one once. It was called In the Kingdom of Ice and it was fantastic.

I probably never would have read it in book form. But the audio book was perfect for the long, mindless drives that I was making during that time.

I can see ebooks/kindles/etc for those who have vision problems. Enlarging the font is a great thing and help people who otherwise would hurt to much to read the physical book.

Personally, I want the actual book. Maybe I'm crazy (well, probably), but I actually like the feel of a book in my hands, turning the pages, seeing the cover art staring at me as I sit in down. I enjoy turning it over and reading the description on the back. I even like having cute bookmarks to stick between pages and save my place. I volunteer at a library bookstore taking in donations and selling cheap books to the public. Or at least I did before this pandemic. So I like being surrounded my books. I've been that way since I was a child when I would beg my mom to read me stories over and over again. And I don't see myself changing.

I think society spends too much time in front of screens. Many of us (including myself) have office jobs where we spend eight hours a day in front of a computer screen. Then we fill up hours "binge watching" shows on TVs. Or we are on computer or tablets to get news and watch Youtube. And then there is the ever present phone. People can't even enjoy a meal together without constantly checking their phone for another text or Facebook update or instagram post. I have no problem with these things in moderation, but it often feels like people's life are dependent on being plugged into the next machine. Call me old fashioned, but shouldn't a phone be used for, I don't know, phone calls?