Old School

I told you I love the Wizard of Oz. After working on my last blog post, I decided to choose The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as my next book. Those of you hoping for an extended book review will be a bit disappointed. It is a great book - read it and read it to your kids (just be warned it is more graphic than the movie).

Instead, I wanted to compare and evaluate the mediums by which I read my first two books - the Kindle and a traditional book.

The Kindle
After many months of waiting and dreaming, my husband finally got the Kindle this year for Christmas. I'll admit, my first instinct was to shun it completely. I love to read books, and I just didn't think that the Kindle was for me. To change my mind, Chris graciously relinquished some of his gift card and downloaded Decision Points for me. I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised. The Kindle is surprisingly easy to read - there really is no glare. It was also nice not to lug 497 pages worth of a book up to Michigan. It takes a few minutes to get your bearings, but it was fairly easy to navigate and use. The biggest surprise of the Kindle was the book price. Originally, this was my biggest objection to the Kindle, but we found out that books on the Kindle are significantly cheaper than traditional books. For example, Decisions Points retails for $35. The Kindle edition is only $9.99. For those of you not into math, that is a savings of 71%. Pretty substantial savings for us, since this reduces the cost of books for Chris while he is getting his Master's degree.

One drawback of the Kindle is that not all books are available on the Kindle, which can defeat the point of having one. Also, it is in black and white. Normally, this is not a problem since many books don't use pictures, but when you are reading a book with illustrations or photos, you lose the color (a big issue for books like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz). Additionally, its daintiness makes it convenient for travel, but also susceptible to damage. Of course, you can shell out another $30-$40 for a hard case, but that adds expense. My last and biggest objection to the Kindle is its WiFi. At this point, many are wondering why I am shunning the "great and powerful" Internet, but isn't the point of the reading a book to read a book? It seems counterproductive to have a device for reading books that allows for the irresistible distraction of the Internet.

Traditional Books
What to be said about the old, traditional book? For starters, the experience of going to a book store and picking out your book is one of my favorites. I realize many people, like us, buy a lot of their books off the Internet, but if you haven't been to a bookstore in a while, pay them a visit. There is just something about holding in your hands the book that you have so carefully chosen - the colors, the weight, its smell - all things absent with the Kindle. Additionally, there is no better feeling when you are reading than feeling the pages under your right thumb slowly diminish while the ones under your left grow ever-so-slightly. And when you turn that last page, the sense of accomplishment is unmatched. The Kindle only offers a small bar progress bar at the bottom with a percentage of the book you have read.

So, what's a girl to do? Kindle or book? Well, in case you hadn't figured it out yet, I am more inclined to the traditional book. The experience of turning pages, seeing color illustrations and feeling the paper on my hands is just too satisfying to give up completely. I'll still enjoy Chris' Kindle occasionally, but for the most part you can find me curled up on the couch with a good, old fashioned book - that is, if my munchkins let me.