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I love, love, love paper books. Don’t get me wrong here. I have hundreds of them on 11 or so bookcases scattered about my house. I especially love old ones and ones with pretty covers. I have a soft spot for library discards and other well-used tomes, about which my mind romanticizes all the previous readers.
But I have so many reasons to love using Kindle as well. Should you buy one? Here are some of the reasons I like mine.
1. I can borrow books from the library for FREE!
I do buy books on Kindle, but my budget can’t handle the sheer volume of books I read. Libraries offer ebooks these days and my favorite format for them is Kindle.
Libraries also offer books that you can read through apps such as Libby, Overdrive, or Hoopla as well as experiences through online browsers, but if a Kindle option exists, I always choose that.
2. All my Kindles and Kindle apps sync.
I can pick up reading where I left off from any of the devices I currently own. So if I’m stuck waiting somewhere without a book, I can just whip out my iPhone and read from the last page I was on in my current book.
3. Highlights sync with Goodreads.
I use Goodreads to track the books I’ve read and am currently reading. Whenever I highlight a Kindle book, the highlights show up in a convenient collection there. I like to look back at my notes and occasionally make them public (they are private by default).
If you’ve checked a book out from the library or borrowed one from Kindle Unlimited, the highlights do not go away. They will still be there for you to reference after you’ve returned the book.
4. I can borrow or buy a book without having to wait.
If it’s the middle of the night and I want to immediately start on the next book in a riveting series, I can have it nearly instantly. Except if I’m trying to borrow it from the library and have to put my name on a hold list, of course. But the purchase option still exists!
5. Highlights are easy and don’t “ruin” the book.
I’ve found that I like to read nonfiction on Kindle better than in a physical book. I can “un” highlight things. The notes part doesn’t hold up quite so well, though. That works better on paper.
6. It is easy to find a particular passage or phrase.
When I’m trying to remember when a new character was introduced or when the author mentions a particular concept, it’s so easy to look for the exact word or phrase without trying to figure out which exact page it was on. Kindle has a search field!
7. Many out-of-print books have been introduced electronically.
Sometimes it’s nearly impossible to find a copy of a printed book that is no longer being published. But there are a growing number of those on Kindle since the costs to the publisher are lower.
8. There are a lot of public domain books available for free.
Many, many older books (anything published before 1924 is currently no longer copyrighted) are available for free and you don’t have to return them when you are done reading them!
(It’s also worth checking out Google Books if you love old books. There are so many that are only available there and you can choose to read them as facsimiles of the original pages and typesetting or as flowing text.)
I currently have the regular Kindle (an older version), but I’d love a Kindle Paperwhite!
