My first e-reader came to me by force. It was many Christmases ago, when my logical-to-a-fault husband took a look at the guest room wall (floor-to-ceiling built-ins essentially vomiting paperbacks), noticed how much extra weight my suitcases carried on vacation (“But I don’t know what I’ll want to read first!”), and took the bold and courageous step of purchasing me a Kindle Touch.
I won’t say I felt like my dog, Shadow, unwrapping a box of flea and tick medication … or an electric collar. But, well, maybe a little.
But alas. While I hate to admit it. (Especially in writing to the entire world.) He was right and I was wrong.
As much as I railed against them in the beginning, it’s safe to say that I’m an e-book convert. In fact, it was my idea to upgrade my Kindle Touch to a shiny new Kindle Paperwhite a couple of years ago — and this time, opening the package was like opening a box filled with puppies sporting big, red bows on their heads.
Before e-books, spending a week in Punta Cana with twenty-three possible titles was a thing of fantasy. Before e-books, I wasted countless hours trying to predict what I’d be in the mood for this day or that. Before e-books, I actually had to use a book light if I read in bed while hubby was sleeping — a struggle that never seemed to work quite the way I wanted. And before e-books, millions more trees met untimely ends in order to stock our shelves. How’s that for an Earth Day connection?
Hypocrite warning: I’m not against paper books. And if I LOVE LOVE LOVE an e-book, there’s still a good chance I’ll purchase the paperback just so I can place it on that lovely guest room wall and make easy reference to it later. I did this with all three Hunger Games books (The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay), for example, and have absolutely no regrets. But I’m also likely to purchase the Kindle version of something I have in print because it’s more portable — and yes, the chance of me getting to everything on that bookshelf is slim to none.
Yes, it’s a sickness. But I love it ;)
Need help choosing an e-book for Earth Day? Try an Amazon #1 bestseller like Desperately Ever After or its sequel, Damsels in Distress. The trees will smile and so will you ;)
P.S. Thanks to the wonderful ladies at #chicklitchat for flooding Twitter with this lovely graphic and the #readgreen hashtag.
LauraKenyon.com 