An Inkling about Kindle

I’ve had a persistent argument with a friend. It’s about books. I tell him that I love them and he doesn’t so his point of view is irrelevant. Now, I’m making him sound like an illiterate anti-education doofus, which he is absolutely not. Our argument is not precisely about books because it’s about the Amazon Kindle.

Stacked against each other

Amazon Kindle is an electronic book reader that stores up to a bazillion titles (or up to how much memory your device has) at any one time. It uses an E-ink technology that emulates the look of a printed page and doesn’t have any backlight, which translates to it having no glare. It’s very lightweight and some versions have wi-fi capability that allows for surfing and even tweeting. The Kindle’s battery life can last up to a month or even longer depending on usage.

My friend is pro-Kindle and is excited to purchase a Kindle Touch or a Kindle Keyboard this Christmas as a gift for himself. And I’m pro-reading. I tell him that part of the joy of reading is actually holding up the book and turning the pages. He argues that the Kindle is so light that there’s no “ngawit” factor and isn’t the point of turning a page is to get to the other page regardless that you pressed a button or swiped at a screen. I say part of the excitement of enjoying a story is finding out the number of pages left in each chapter or until the end of the book because you know the author is about to bring out an interesting twist. Since the Kindle only displays in percentage how far along in the book you are, he responds that he doesn’t care about page numbers. I was confident that I won this point until I found out that Amazon was adding real page numbers that corresponded to the printed versions of the book through a firmware update. He says that since I enjoy reading books, I would be able to appreciate that a Kindle can store up to hundreds of titles (which is the more accurate number) and I can access all of them from one location. I reply that I only read one book at a time so what use would I have for having a bazillion books at my fingertips or a finger swipe. He says that when traveling, one only has to bring a light Kindle as opposed to heavy paperbacks. I retort that why would I waste my time reading when I paid a hefty sum to see the sights.

In all honesty, I get the benefits of an Amazon Kindle. How can a bookworm not salivate at the thought of having numerous titles in one handy device that I can fit in my pocket? Plus the Kindle has a dictionary, which is eternally useful when reading any verbose author. And for those moments when one is disturbed about a line or a scene from a book that you can’t quite recall where you remember it from, there is the facility of finding out the answer. It’s just that this was a belated realization that my friend will attribute to his preeminent wisdom.

I will not admit defeat. I will continue to argue that the actual book brings more joy to reading; that there is a certain amount of contentment in seeing your beloved titles on a slightly dusty shelf and the irreplaceable memory of a journey in each crease or fold in the dog-eared pages of a book. I’ll just borrow his Kindle and secretly enjoy it when he’s not looking.

Candice See, Entry #1