My Kindle Made Me A B*tch
I have seen many many many people drawing up pros and cons of e-readers versus paper’n'ink books. I have even done it myself. However, now that I have been using it for a couple of months, I realise that everyone has been missing a crucial point: e-readers make you a completely unreasonable so-and-so.
Say, for instance, you want to read My Cousin Rachel. In the past, you would simply have gone to the library and checked it out. But now, you head for the kindle store only to find it is not available. You huff and puff about this. Of course, you STILL COULD GO TO THE LIBRARY, YOUR KINDLE HAS NOT BROKEN YOUR LEGS. But now that oddly seems like too much effort. So you don’t read it.
Or say, that you think ok, well I think I might read Great Expectations instead. You head to the Kindle store. But you notice you have to pay for it! Even though Jane Austen is free, Dickens wants your cash! (Why is this, by the way?) And even though it is eighty six pence; approximately the cost of the packet of biscuits you have scoffed, you bitterly resent this. Of course, you STILL COULD GO TO THE LIBRARY, etc, etc. But you don’t. So you don’t read it.
And then say, you want to read Moonwalking With Einstein. But this is ten whole pounds for the kindle book! When it is only £8.17 for the paperback! (And this is still a pricey paperback, I think.) And you cannot understand this discrepancy! And you fret about it for days and days and days and regularly check back in desperation because THERE MUST BE SOME MISTAKE! But there isn’t. And eventually you begrudgingly do fork out the tenner, because you actually do really want to read this. And then you wistfully think back to that eighty six pence on Mr Dickens.
You are probable a nicer, less demanding, more patient person than I am. Your kindle has probably enhanced your life without destroying your soul. How do you manage it?
Posted on November 6, 2011, in Uncategorized and tagged books, daphne du maurier, dickens, great expectations, joshua foer, kindle, my cousin rachel, reading. Bookmark the permalink. 15 Comments.
You do know about the gutenberg project? Free downloads of many classics. And you have heard of Calibre, that changes e-book files to something that Kindle can read?
I don’t have an ebook but I’m considering Kindle – only because I know there are ways to get non-amazon e-books on it.
I had actually not heard of calibre…& do not use Gutenberg much because I often dont like how the book is printed, but you have solved that problem! Thanks!
I have signed up for several newletters like Books by the Knob and try to click only on the free Kindle books. My finger did slip last week and I got one for $9!!!. Anyway, I have no problem getting the free books. My problem is reading them. I have only read three this years. I still love holding a book. I recently signed up for an e-book challenge for next year. I hope that will help as I now have over 300 books on my Kindle!!!!
Carol
Carol I think you should stop subscribing to that newsletter until you have made a dent in that pile!
Oh I totally know what you mean. For me, the greatest upside of having a Nook is that I have a few more “shopping” options to find low-priced or free e-books. Still, though, I do find myself in situations like these — especially the discrepancy in price from e-book to paperback. Infuriating!
Yes! What is the explanation? I *think* that ebooks are taxed in the uk and paper books are not but 1) why? And 2) that still can’t account for the difference.
This is hilarious. I don’t have an e-reader, but I definitely relate to this phenomenon as it relates to checking out movies on iTunes versus actually getting in the car and going to the movie rental place. And that’s even after I’ve factored into the equation the fact that I really like our local movie rental place, have a long history with them, want to keep them in business, etc. But OH IT’S SO MUCH WORK!
Ahem…yes. I also do this. Will miss those video shops when they are gone!
I still haven’t got an e-reader. I know this is going to make me sound like the cheapest person on earth, but I can’t get used to the idea of buying something that I don’t actually get a physical object at the end of the transaction!
LOL! I still haven’t got an ereader, but I can see how I might fall into your problems if I did. Thanks for making me smile!
I can relate to this – some ebook prices are ridiculous. One book I want is $35 AU as an ebook, but I can buy it for $11 AU from The Book Depository or have it ordered from my local for about $20 AU. My Cousin Rachel is available on Kobo I think (as an epub) but Rebecca is not. Why? And why the restrictions for different countries?
Haha this is hilarious, love it. I don’t have an e-reader (cos I’m unapologetically old-fashioned and have a penchant for sniffing books) but if I did, I would totally do this. Although you raise some good questions here that I want to know the answers for too – especially why on earth is an e-book sometimes more expensive than the physical copy?! Insane. Anyway, thanks for the giggle
I think there’s something to this. It’s like when you’re microwaving something for 90 seconds and it seems to take FOREVER and you want to pull your hair out waiting for the freaking thing to reheat; but if you didn’t have a microwave you would have just reheated it on the stove or in the oven and it would have taken 20 minutes and not bothered you at all. But you’re ‘saving time’ using the microwave.
I’m laughing as I read this. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to read a ‘classic’ piece of literature and only gotten angry because it’s not a free public domain book. Our lives are rough.
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