Regarding the Kindle

Anyone who knows me in real life knows that I love my gadgets.  I surmise that I am not alone in that.  Many of us are addicted to computers, iPads and Pods, cell phones, and the like.  But there is no other device in my possession in which I feel more of an attachment to than my Kindle.  I like my iPad, I love my Kindle.

To be pried from my cold, dead, fingers.

The Kindle makes reading a whole lot easier.  I have never read so many books in my life.  Before purchasing my Kindle I had something called "Book ADD".  My shelf is absolutely filled with half finished books that for whatever reason could not keep my attention.  The screen keeps me focused.  The lightness of the device and shorter pages on the display combined with the click to turn mechanism keep me moving through the book.  It is to the point where I can read a novel a week if I set aside the time.

"But Matt, I like the idea of a Kindle, and it sounds great, but I would miss holding an actual book in my hands!"

So say you now.  Go get a Kindle and start reading.  I still appreciate fine binding, as everyone here knows, with leather covers and ribbons.  This is not an either-or situation.  The Bible and Breviary don't work well on the Kindle at all.  Nevertheless, a few weeks ago I purchased such a copy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  It was my intention to read a nice hardcover.  Things were slow going and I got frustrated with my progress.  It is a nice edition of the book with near perfect typesetting, guilt edges, and sewn binding.  40% of the way through I downloaded it onto my Kindle for free and finished it shortly thereafter.  (Btw, as an aside - I was surprised to read anti-Catholic cliches in that book...)

For the past few years while teaching at a Classical Liberal Arts school I have realized that my public education gipped me out of an appreciation for good literature.  Now that is being fixed with the help my Kindle.  We read a few decent novels in our day but it was very "vanilla" in the sense that no real understanding or desire to go deeper was impressed upon me.  My college literature class was a five week summer course joke in which we were expected to read a book or two per week.  This was an impossible task for someone with other classes, a job, and a life.  We also read some real modern trash in that class.

Now I am challenging myself.  For years I have been unable to get through the Lord of the Rings.  I just started yesterday and am speeding through it.  Thank you Kindle.  I can't wait for the new Paperwhite, for which I will use an Amazon gift certificate.  I will miss the buttons and audio but the light is well worth it.  If you like reading, go get a Kindle.