A couple of weeks back
I went to the beach for the day. I love a hot summer day at the beach with a
good book! Now, the sand at Grand Beach is beautiful powdery white sand, but it
gets in everything, so I didn’t want to take my BlackBerry PlayBook, which is
what I mostly read on. I hadn’t used my old Sony reader for a while, so I got
it out and dusted it off but the screen has gone all weird —I’m afraid it’s
shot. So I went out and bought…a PAPER BOOK.
When I first started
reading e-books, I occasionally still read print books too, but in the last
year or more I don’t think I’ve read a single print book. So I opened up my new book at
the beach and started reading, and in the bright sunshine that was fine.
Then I got into bed
that night and picked up my book to read as I always do before going to sleep.
And dammit…I could not see that tiny font very well. I have a bedside lamp that
pulls out from the wall, so I yanked it over closer but even so…the paper page
was sort of beige and the font was tiny and I kept blinking and trying to
adjust my glasses so I could see it, but it wasn’t working.
Now, I am an old lady. My eyes are pretty bad, meaning I am VERY near-sighted, but my eye doctor told me that probably means it will be longer before I need bifocals, unlike my husband who started to need reading glasses at age 40. I haven’t yet had to go to bifocals, but it’s getting close. Sometimes if I have a hard time focusing on something very small with my glasses, I pull them a little lower on my nose and that helps.
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| From skobo |
But it wasn’t helping
me read this print book, and frustrated, I gave up and went to sleep. Reading
on my tablet means the screen is bright white and backlit, so even in dim
lighting I can see it clearly. The font can be adjusted from teeny tiny to nice
and big. I so much missed reading on my tablet, I ended up skimming a lot of
that print book just to get through it.
I know there are still
people out there who resist e-books – they like to feel the paper book (and
some apparently like to smell it; I personally have never been fond of the
smell of musty old books). But I’m not one of them. I am so converted to e-books and my digital reader. I thought it was
more about the convenience of instantly purchasing and downloading a book, even
in the middle of the night, but now I am sold on how much easier it is for me
to see the book, how clear and
visible the text is…I didn't even realize the difference until I tried to read that print book.
How about you? Are you a digital convert or no?
How about you? Are you a digital convert or no?
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2 comments:
I totally am! For the reasons you mentioned-- instant gratification is very important to me :) and being able to up the font size when I'm on the treadmill, etc.
But also because when we went on vacation this summer, my daughter carted along 4 books and I had just my kindle. Lighter, easier, and it took up a lot less space. Oh, and cheaper! I can two novels, even more novellas, for the price she pays for paperback or--yes, she still does it-- hardback.
I can't remember the last time I read a paper book. People give them to me at times but they usually just stay in the pile-- if they sound great, I'll download the digital version! :)
Hell, yeah. I can't remember the last time I read a paper book either. They seem so unwieldy now. Handling them feels awkward. It actually strikes me as strange how quickly (and completely) I've been won over.
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