I love books. I love holding books, I love going into used bookstores and scrounging around for books and even the smell of books makes me quite happy. That said, I’ve considered buying a Kindle (or other electronic book storing/reading device). The functionality and ease of use, in addition to the fact that it’s portable and I’d have loads of books (3,500!!) with me wherever I go without having to carry individual books is appealing. AND, I can surf the interwebs either through wireless or 3G – that’s pretty good too. Yes I know I’ve got a laptop for that, but my laptop is a bit heavy and the screen doesn’t have the readability of a Kindle.

This is something I’ve actually thought about for quite some time now, and since it’s been announced that Wiley has signed an exclusivity deal for many of its modern classics, that this is the direction things such as this are headed has become even clearer to me. And it’s been announced that from today Kindles are available directly from Amazon.co.uk at a fairly reasonable price, so temptation has grown steadily (and it’s only 10am!).  

But I just can’t bring myself to do it. I don’t think that I engage with and get as much from text that I read on a screen as I do with a book (or magazine or newspaper even) printed on paper that I can physically hold. Screens are too much associated with the ability to find information quickly and easily. This isn’t a bad thing – for most things it’s good (surfing the web to find certain info, watching short videos, texting quick messages, etc), but is it good for books? I’m still undecided on that one.