I love reading so much. I would gladly neglect everything else in my life to be left alone, reading. I don't need to shower...nor do I need to eat...nor do I need to socialize. I just want to be all alone with a never ending supply of books.
Let me start out by saying I don't like that Kindle thing. I don't want one. You might think that because I am such a voracious reader, that I would enjoy such a gadget. But you would be wrong.
I enjoy the physicality of books. I like to choose my books from the vibe they impart to me from the shelf. I like to judge a book by it's cover...meaning that I do appreciate and choose books sometimes based on the lure of an attractive outer shell. I like to see the book, hold the book, and perhaps read the first few lines of the first chapter. The style of writing will usually catch me within the first few sentences, and I can quickly decide if the book will hold my interest from that point on.
I like a nice thick, heavy, clock-you-on-the-head, kind of book. I am not trying to be intellectual or some kind of a braggart, but I read very quickly. Too quickly. I can usually finish 500 pages in a couple of days. And that is not uninterrupted reading either, but whatever time I can glean between daily chores and children and the distractions of living life. If I did have the opportunity to read 100% without interruption, I could knock out a pile of hefty novels in record time.
If a book is too small, I may just put it back on the shelf again. I find a short book terribly unsatisfying. Like those tiny brownie bites they think are going to satisfy your craving for chocolate, when actually, all they do is leave you staring at the empty wrapper and wishing you hadn't even bothered to waste the calories.
I like real books from the library. I like getting them for free, especially since I polish them off so quickly. It is such a waste of $14 of my precious dollars to purchase a book at Borders when I'm going to finish it in less than a weekend. I'm not opposed to the second hand book stores, or even Goodwill's hit or miss book section, but the Library is so perfectly clean and categorized. So quiet and peaceful. I can touch the books, skim the slightly yellowed pages, and let the book sell itself to me.
Thats one reason I just really dislike the Kindle. Your buying a service. Your buying a lightweight, computer generated, breakable, GADGET. I am overwhelmed with gadgets as it is. I do appreciate my computer, and my cell phone, but I don't need to curl up on the sofa on a quiet evening with yet another gadget. Gadgets are not cozy. Gadgets cannot withstand me smashing them into the sand at the beach. I don't want Amazon updating my "book" with it's special offers and free download opportunities. I just want to do it the old fashioned way, by turning the pages. With my fingers.
Yes, yes, I know, it is meant to appeal to the techie generation...those people who have their i-phone always in-hand, and can't be bothered to heft a real book in their laptop case, as it would throw off their balance as they try to text their boss with one hand and sip their latte with the other. A real book is antiquated. It is just so much easier to download your next book club recommendation, rather than waste your precious time getting cross-eyed in a bookstore!
My lifestyle choice is to be a rare, but not extinct, creature of the past. We few remaining specimens are hardcore, but mostly docile creatures. We are instinctual, but expressive...often verbose in our descriptive communications. In the modern world, we fear our main source of sustenance will soon disappear. The newspaper and magazine are soon to be relics...and daily pulp communication will be completely online. Why read the Washington Post or a Glamor magazine when you can just check out the website? I fear that the encroachment of the Kindle, and it's brotherhood of imitators, will soon devour the books that sustain my kind forever.
The Bookworm, a proud species, will be forced to evolve into something else. Some hybrid of the Computer-Nerd and the Spectacled-Librarian. I don't want to be extinct. I want to have the title carved into my headstone when I die:
Here Lies Jennifer Watts.
Mother,
Wife,
Bookworm.
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