My daughter inhales books at the rate that many kids slurp Smoothies — about five a week. She reads books by time period generally — The Salem Witch Trials, The Tudor era, the Byzantium period. And then she throws in fluff for fun every once in a while.
The other day I watched her read papers in a plastic binder intently. I thought she was doing homework, but she didn’t move from the sofa for an hour.
Finally I asked what her had her so enthralled. She said she was reading the Stephanie Meyers book that was leaked onto the internet.
I asked why she didn’t just read it off her computer.
She was appalled. She said “that isn’t like reading a book!” She and her friends were sharing the printed copy they’d made.
She knows how I feel about piracy and authors getting their fair due (she buys hard bound copies of books with her allowance and gift money rather than checking them out from the library), but this isn’t for sale as a book.
My curiosity peaked, I asked her about Kindles. She rolled her eyes.
“No wayyyyy…” was her response to having, holding or using a Kindle.
She told me that a Kindle is like doing homework or playing on the computer, but the joy of reading for her is totally destroyed when she held one.
Interesting, this is a student who goes to a virtually paperless school, communicates constantly with friends on the computer but said electronics are not for reading for pleasure.
In a quick search of hundreds of the most read news stories on the subject on-line, most were unabashedly enthusiastic about the Kindle. I’m just not there. I want to see the beautiful book covers, smell the pages, flip back and forth to my favorite parts. I want to see what other people are reading on the airplane. And most importantly, I want to still be able to go shopping down the street in a big bookstore and peruse the shelves with little pieces of paper under various books telling me why the bookseller that is my neighbor enjoyed reading it and why I should buy it. Will Kindle kill the independent bookstore? God help us all if it does.
