Reading

Some of you will turn over in your graves, and you’re not even dead yet! I think e-reading is far superior to the old ink and print, and I’m not ashamed to natter on about it.

1. Instant Access. I don’t have to drag my kids to the bookstore or the library and try to hurry and pick out my book at 87% stress capacity. I don’t have to buy one book each for them too and say “no” to the 20 toys each they somehow find even though it’s a BOOK store. I don’t have to buy a cookie at the Starbucks that seems like the best idea ever when you’re alone but like the fourth circle of hell (the one for the greedy) when you have three sugar monsters in tow. I don’t have to keep anyone quiet or return anything after a week (after finding it wedged between the couch and the wall after 3 hours of searching). Instant access is big on my list.
2. My tablet has a clock right on the screen. I don’t have to fumble around to find out how much longer I get to read before bath time or even lift my head. It’s right there.
3. Night mode. I pretty much use this feature all the time because I live in Seattle in a house with almost no Southern exposure. (Think cave dwelling. All my plants are yellow.) Plus, I can read at night in bed. With a print book I have to turn on a light and hubby will not endure that.
4. Multiple e-reader platforms = freedom.  This isn’t a goofy old e-reader. This is a tablet. I can put Nook, Kindle, Kobo, Aldiko, and the library’s reader software on here and read it all, picking the best price online and using the reader that goes with it.
5. Staying Connected. Reading a book doesn’t mean I go off the grid for an extended amount of time. I can see my emails there.
6. Saving money. Yes, I said it! E-reading saves you money. Instead of buying a paperback or driving to the library, you tap your way to another book. The library loans books for free. All the e-reader sites have plenty of free books. If you buy new release copies at $11 apiece you only need to buy 30 books to add up to a top-of-the-line tablet. I read that many books easy in 6 months, so there you go.
7. Games. I have a secret. Don’t tell anyone. I sometimes don’t want to read. Sometimes I want to play Solitaire, or cut fruit with a sword or, do a crossword puzzle. All those things are on the tablet too. I can look all intellectual and technologically hip while playing Easy Mode Sudoku.
8. Web Browser.  I can look up words I find curious in an instant without logging on somewhere else or finding a big dusty book (and the dustingI should have done). I can see what this slang from Australia or the Millenial Generation means. I’m getting older and more un-hip as the years past, but I don’t have to look like a doofus about slang.
9. MyFitnessPal. This needs explanation – weight loss while reading instead of weight gain. My Fitness Pal is a calorie counting database and diary online. I am completely in love with this app and website. It’s taken 12 pounds off my book-nerd butt and I can pause in my reading to enter the granola bar I just ate in my food diary whenever I want. I’m going for my goal weight!
10. The Environment. I know this is important to some people and some people feel like it’s over-preached. Still,  e-readers are friendlier to the environment. No trees have to die. No oil necessary in shipping books or driving to the store to get them. There will be no waste in eliminating the book when you’re done with it.
11. Storage. My bookshelf is the same physical size whether I have 5 books or 50000. You can even add zeroes to that. No book bugs, no dust, no shelves that melt inside after 6 months, sag, and then fall apart when you move them. No wall-space cluttered with bookshelves. No temptation to decorate said bookshelves with cute but pointless knickknacks (ooh! double K!).
12. Variety. I can get books from all over the world written by countless people. I’m not limited to the book supplier’s choices nestled on the shelves of the bookstore or the library. (Yes, you are limited by the book supplier.)
13. International Versatility. As long as I have the little plug adapter thingie and travel to a place with electricity, I can get books in my own language wherever I go. There will be no searching bookstores for a few scattered English copies. There will be no explaining to bookstore owners in my broken excuse for their language what I am looking for. That’s because I don’t really travel, but it could also be because I have an e-reader and downloaded the book instead.
14. Emergency Child Distraction. In case of emergency, my tablet can entertain one or more children. Don’t even tell me your 2005 movie edition paperback copy of Pride and Prejudice can do that. Wile it should only be an emergency resort and under full supervision (which I recently discovered in the screen-crack incident of July 2012) it is an option.
15. One other reason I’m not going to say because it’s a secret. Well, Ok, I just got tired of thinking of reasons, but I wanted 15 instead of 14. I thought it looked better. So this one’s a secret. By the time you call me on it I’ll probably have thought of number 15. But that doesn’t mean I’ll tell it to you.

No, your print book doesn’t require electricity or crack when it is dropped, but when you spray Dr.Pepper out your nose because the book was so funny, your pages get all wrinkly and stained FOREVER. Mine won’t. If my tablet gets ruined, I have a protection plan and can re-download my books instantly for free. Your book is just as sensitive to fire, water, and four-year-olds as my tablet too. In case of global electromagnetic pulse, my tablet will be a hunk of plastic, metal and glass, but I think we’ll be more interested in surviving than reading if that happens.

OK, Now you can post your comment why I am wrong or how you agree with me. Let me have it!