Should you buy a Kindle?

 Tl;dr if you are an avid reader: YES. AND: it doesn't mean you can't have prints as well.

I was apathetic towards the idea of an e-book reader. I love the smell of books, the sound of the pages when I turn them, and how they are displayed on my bookshelves. It feels like betrayal to purchase e-books and turn my back on real books. I have to admit that real books still have their advantages for emotional attachment and physical experience, but let's just embrace the fact that traditional printed books are not in competition for the heart of a bookworm, it's just us.

I still buy real books, but not all books that I wanted to read; just a personal selection of books that I really like and I want to hold on to physically. Sometimes e-book feels like a mere digital file that can be deleted whenever you want, while printed ones feels like they are yours for life, right? That beat-up copy of Harry Potter on your bookshelf takes you back to your elementary school years. They are physical reminders of your intellectual journeys.

What I'm trying to do here is to convince you to buy e-book reader like Kindle over reading through iPad or phones, and maybe still buy real books occasionally. Here goes:

Storage efficiency

I have lots of book in my house, and by lots I mean the kind of quantity that makes my mom asked me to donate/ sell some of them every here and then. If anyone visited my house and raised a topic about my bookshelf, there goes my mom "She has a lot more than that, there's still many in the storage room, only put in boxes, and her room, and God knows where else." I have sold and donated boxes of my books regularly but it keeps piling up. 

Well, with e-books, just read as many books as you like without thinking whether there's still space on your bookshelf. This also applies to traveling. If you want to read any book in your trip, just bring your slim and light Kindle instead of bulky books. Again, if you want emotional and physical attachment to the books you love, just buy it like what I did. But, what I always bring to read in my daily commute/ vacation is still my Kindle. It's just more convenient. The physical books are for home re-reading.

Price block

Books are expensive, especially the imported ones. If you have a reading goal of 30 books a year, it may cost you about 7,5 million rupiah and you may not realize it. E-books are so much cheaper, you can save A LOT. You can read more books and be financially more at ease. The more books you read the better right?

Learn new words conveniently and quickly

You can highlight, bookmark, make notes, and categorise without ruining the book (no more awful dog ears). What matters the most to me is that we can look up for definitions instantly, Kindle has a built-in offline dictionary, you only need to hold the word for 1 sec then the meaning shows up. After it shows up we can make that into notes which can be accessed separately. Other than that, there's this feature called X-Ray: Kindle’s most innovative search tool. It displays a list of occurrences for a highlighted character or location. If the book has pictures, X-Ray will collect them for you to view from one place. Amazon encourages authors to add tidbits of information to X-Ray entries to expand the book’s lore and make it easier for readers to keep track of characters and events. It's pretty cool. Not to forget that all e-books are easily searchable, guys!

If we already welcome the e-books, why not reading them on iPad?

Reading on iPad feels like reading a TV - Eye strain after long hours of reading

I hate reading on iPad/ phones. A Kindle is better than any tablet any day. Unlike phones or tablets, Kindle is really easy on your eyes. Phones/ tablets screen emits light directly into your eyes. It’s because an LCD/LED screen produces images by using a light that is placed behind it. In other words: you are looking into the source of light. A Kindle saves your eyes. Its screen doesn’t need a light to produce a visible image. E-ink is what really sets the Kindle apart. Its screen contains a thin layer of special particles which hold black and white pigment and are sensitive to electrical fields. Depending on the polarity, a particle is either black or white and can change colors rapidly. The Kindle uses focused electric bursts to change each particle when you turn the page, resulting in text that’s nearly indistinguishable from the real deal. With Kindle you are not looking into the source of light. If you read for long hours, you have to care for your eyes, and Kindle is a way better option for it.

How about reading at night? Kindle has some backlights that you can turn on and manually adjust for the amount of illumination you require. Sleep disruptions caused by backlights are common with phones and laptops, but with Kindle devices, the LED system has a natural, soft white light. I usually use no backlights at all though.

No glare on sunny days

I often read books while taking my dog for a walk, regularly in the morning and the afternoon; the last one is at night (but I don't bring my Kindle, I usually bring my phone to do Duolingo for the night walk). When walking Goldie, there's a lot of sun and if I bring my phone / tablet, the screen will glare and it will be so hard to read. That's not the case for Kindle. The e-ink display mentioned earlier is a glare-free display that reads like real paper, even in direct sunlight. It's a comfortable read outdoors (it's also waterproof).

The battery lasts forever

The Kindle battery can run for weeks on end while slowly sipping electricity. The thing about electronic devices is that they need energy to run, which if you have phones/ tablets can be quite annoying as most need to be charged every day or two. Kindles are totally different. Even if you’re an avid reader who spends long hours reading every day, an average Kindle can last for at least a week. For casual book lovers who read about an hour a day, charging your device twice a month is sufficient.

No distraction

Phone/tablet offers distractions that can fragment the reading experience, or stop it in its tracks. Push notifications? The apps beg you to review them all the time. Distractions are particularly a problem when reading because it’s an activity that requires focus. If you’re reading for information, you have to hold the information in your working memory long enough to grasp the entire picture of what the text is telling you. If you’re reading a story, you want to stay immersed in the events of the plot.

When you’re distracted, you lose the thread of information or story. Sometimes important facts get dropped from your working memory before you’re able to store them. Regardless of whether you’re reading to learn something or for pleasure, distractions keep you from having as positive an outcome as you would have had without interruptions.With Kindle you will never have to try to sit down and read but end up on Youtube or Instagram. It's a distraction-free device dedicated only for reading. This device is made when you just want to read. Trust me, the loss of the ability to relax and lose ourselves in a story for a time isn’t worth the chance to check Instagram one more time mid-chapter.

That's it from me. I didn't buy my own Kindle, it was a gift my boyfriend (now husband) bought me when he was studying in the UK. It is one of the greatest gifts I ever got; and even if I bought it myself, it would have been one of the greatest purchases too. In conclusion, go get one! They are pretty affordable.