Back to the Library!

After years of getting used to screen and watching movies I thought that I will never again be able to read books, until I met Kindle. Here’s my story about reading e-books.

Ever since I remember my self I was a real bookworm. Bookworm, in case you are not familiar with this term, is someone whose main, or even only passion, is reading books. Just like those insects that spend all their lives eating books.

At school, when my friends did everything kids do — fighting, running, getting hurt or just playing fun games — I, instead of doing so, sat in the classroom and read. After-school hours weren’t different.

I remember one time when grandma was giving gifts to the kids and I thought to myself ‘Why am I always the only one to get a book, how boring is that!’…

All this was until the screens started to distract me.

After all those years of reading, a long period of non-reading time came. Shame on the smartphones, of course.

Not different than any teenager, about 7 years ago I got my first smartphone and soon started to watch movies. A lot of them. And not surprisingly I lost, very quickly, the ability to read books. My brain got used to the entertaining experience of watching a movie on a HD screen. Written texts became too boring for it.

English changed it all!

During the last year I got very passionate about learning English. Beforehand, my English skills narrowed down to reading and understanding a few words here and there.

After getting very good at English (I was gifted a talent for learning languages quite quickly and easily) I realized that listening and speaking is not enough, I have to read. And so I did.

For a couple of weeks, I struggled, trying to read books, physical ones, and e-books as well, on my phone. But it didn’t work. I found that reading on my phone is just too difficult, it drained my eyes, I got distracted by notifications and the text was too small. The overall experience wasn’t convenient and efficient. Physical books weren’t a good option — they are too expensive for me, taking too much room and they aren’t that easy to carry around.

Then, after almost giving up reading — I met Kindle, and it turned out to be my new love.

Kindle is the branded name of an e-reader made by Amazon.

An E-reader is a small device, that looks a bit like a small tablet and consists, like an iPad or any Android tablet, of a screen. But it is not exactly the screen you’re already familiar with from your phone or tablet.

Unlike those screens on your other electronic devices, this screen, which is commonly referred to as an ‘e-ink display’, is basically an electronic paper. Looking at it you won’t notice (almost) any difference from an actual paper.

I’m not going to bother you with a multitude of technical specs: we’re talking here about a small device, it has a screen in the front, a plastic back cover, and a power-on-and-off button in the bottom.

It has very simple and self-explanatory software — as long as you can follow basic and simple on-screen instructions, you’ll be able to use this device without any problem.

So, what is in this device that drew me back into reading books?

Actually, there are a few more companies that make e-readers. Good ones, to be true. And yet, the reason I’d recommend you to get a Kindle is not merely because I myself use it, but because I think that it is only Kindle that’ll provide you with the most efficient experience of e-book reading.

That being said, bear in mind that most of what I’m going to praise Kindles for is true for other companies’ e-readers too.

The subtitle says ‘a library in your pocket’ and that is already a considerable reason for buying a Kindle (or any other- - I’ve already made that statement). I speak on behalf of myself: as a bookworm, as someone who loves books, loves to read and juggle between books — isn’t it great to have my whole library, or at least most of it, in my pocket?!

Because with Kindle it is so. Once I downloaded the books, the currently-reading ones, or all of them, into my Kindle, I can go offline while carrying an entire library that weighs just a few grams.

Ok, now — what about the reading itself?

The reading experience on Kindle is great. So great!

Books that are made for Kindle — they come in. EPUB or other specific formats — are designed specifically for these devices. This means you get something that while looking and feeling like an actual paper, behaves like an electronic object. Are you familiar with that struggle of reading those tiny fonts? Imagine you could increase the size of the font on the actual paper- - with Kindle, it’s not science fiction.

That struggle of reading in a low-light environment? Just swipe down from the top of the paper — excuse me, the Kindle — and turn the backlight! And don’t get confused, even when on, these backlights are nothing like those on your other screens, which are all about ruining your eyes and sleeping. Plus, you never get distracted with nonstop notifications and other distractions that are often around, on your phone, tablet, and laptop.

And above all is the ecosystem.

Up to this point, all I said was true either for Kindles, as well as for other e-readers. But this section is all about and unique to Amazon’s Kindle.

First of all, is the reading experience itself:

Kindle store: Amazon’s e-book store is the largest and most efficient that is. On the Amazon e-book store you’ll find millions (!) of titles, available for immediate purchase and reading. Some of them — a lot of them, are for free!

Kindle Unlimited: with Kindle Unlimited subscription you’ll get access to millions of books for totally free — only you will have to pay 12$ per month.

And of course, besides all that, you can always side-loading an e-book that you purchased or downloaded from other sources.

Public Libraries: via Libby app you can register and get access to public libraries that allow you to loan e-books, some of them won’t even charge you for the subscription.

I personally use the Paperwhite model, which is considered to the most popular model. Since it has all you could ask from an e-reader, and it is small enough, and not too expensive.

The other models are:

Thank you for reading! Please, don’t hesitate commenting and sharing your thoughts about this story.

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