Book Lover Meets E-Books: The Start of a Beautiful Friendship
When Amazon first released the Kindle, I was, of course, an early adopter. But…I rarely used it. Why? Because I rarely read fiction. My nose is, usually, and always has been, buried deeply in non-fiction: history, theology, current events, politics, biography, you name it. Non-fiction has been my steady diet for a long while now, though, as a boy, I read fiction and literature voraciously.
Sure, I’d take my Kindle along on trips, and it was great to use, but otherwise, I’d just set it aside until the next trip.
But in the past year I have become a total Kindle addict. It feeds my long buried fiction addiction and I have read, perhaps, more fiction in the past year than I have in the previous ten years, or more.
I thought I was alone in this, but my friend Dr. Gene Edward Veith recently commented on this and told me that using a Kindle to read e-books has reawakened his passion for reading fiction, which got him into his lifelong journey to begin with, leading to his doctorate in literature, etc. He has become one of my best “recommenders” of fiction to read, he turned me on to The Hunger Games, for example. Told me, “Once you start reading them, you won’t be able to stop.” He was right.
I realized that his experiences with the Kindle are precisely my experiences in the past year.
At first, I thought the Kindle was a nice toy, a nice gadget, but surely it could not replace the “experience” of reading. No physical paper or pages. Sure, reading would not be the same. I was one to snort it off and look down my nose at it. No more.
I’m telling you today that in fact reading is every bit as much a pleasure and then some because of the Kindle. I can take my books with me wherever I go and read them wherever I am and whenever I want.
Kindle is with me anywhere my iPhone is, which is to say, everywhere, all the time.
I find myself ending most days now spending at least thirty minutes, to an hour, with my Kindle reader, reading some work of fiction. I’ve got titles stacked up now in the list waiting to be read, all kinds of fiction.
Most recently it has been The Hunger Games [what a great read!], next up will be another read of the British seafaring fiction of Patrick O’Brian which rises to the level of fine literature.
So, that’s my story, the Kindle and I have a beautiful friendship.
Care to share your own experiences with the Kindle or e-books in general? Do you find yourself reading more fiction?
I use my Kindle constantly, but I primarily read non-fiction. The Ludwig von Mises Institute (a free-market economics think tank) embraces Creative Commons, so they put all the books they publish on their website for free download in ePub and pdf formats. Since I’m into politics, economics, and history, I’ve downloaded hundreds of books from there. So far, the only fiction book I’ve read and enjoyed is Hammer of God.
I use my Kindle for both fiction and non-fiction. I read the fiction during my Metro commute, but I use the non-fiction a LOT during Bible studies. I have Christian Doctrine, in case people ask specifically what Lutherans believe, and the Book of Concord (unfortunately, I had to go through and make my own bookmarks because it’s not helpful to just go to the beginning of, say, the Formula of Concord). I have a book that describes the history and doctrine of many various Christian denominations. I have a Bible dictionary, and a history of Christianity. I also have a couple of different Bible versions, so if everyone is using ESV in the Bible Study, I can give another perspective. It’s gotten to the point that when I pull out the Kindle, the study goes on, but they are also waiting for me to find whatever it was, so I can give more info. It’s been VERY helpful.
You can also find some non-fiction at Project Gutenberg or at some of the sites Amazon lists here.
One of the great things about the Kindle is that when you plug it in to your computer, you can access a file of all your highlights. I’ve copied them over to a separate word document for each book.
Yes, I was not aware of that feature, until I had to do a presentation on a book I had read recently, and … voila! … all my highlights, in print.
Really? It took Gene Edward Veith to turn you onto The Hunger Games? Come on, the rest of us have known the coolness that is The Hunger Games for a long time. Are you going to wait for Veith to recommend George R.R. Martin’s “A Game of Thrones” (the whole saga is called “A Song of Ice and Fire”)?
I obtained a Kindle about a year ago around the time they had a lengthy video that included all of the reasons Kindle would not have a color screen (few months later, Kindle Fire — A technicality I guess since not the Kindle but the Kindle Fire went to color plus new additions all the time). It was a present for my wife. I have read some fiction on it especially out of print items. It seems that you can get through a book quickly. I still read a great deal of non-fiction in several genre. However, I have found a need for some fiction of late (try to be discerning in authors and genre) just to unwind so to speak. Interpret that as you like.
Love my kindle and I read more than ever before. Lot’s of fiction, but lot’s of non-fiction too! I do believe fiction gives lot’s of insights on human nature and is good for sermon illustrations. Ever read anything by Stephen Lawhead? I’m in the third of his Bright Empires series. He writes historical fiction, usually with Christian themes.
Oh, no…more books to buy and read!!!
I’m getting quite a backlog.
I have had my kindle for about 3 years. I love it. I read fiction, but most importion, I have 3 Bibles on it, lots of Lutheran books. I take it with me everwhere. I always have Bibles with me.
2nd year Kindle user, I’ve started reading more fiction again as well. Its also been a blessing when I’ve unfortunately had to sit in a lot of hospital rooms with sick family; so I had TDP, Lutheran Study Bible, Concordia the Lutheran Confessions to start the day along with various commentaries as well as the novels I am currently reading all in one simple package. And if that weren’t enough Kindle is a platform, so I have access on any of the three computers I use.
My wife bought me a Nook for Father’s Day this year, so have enjoyed a few months of e-book life. Read mostly non-fiction on it so far, but a bit of fiction as well (the first of Lawhead’s Bright Empire novels). The reader got lots of use during our nearly week long power loss from Hurricane Isaac. Currently I am using it to read Dr. Veith’s latest book on family vocations. Overall I am very impressed with e-reader’s as a tool for encouraging my non-web reading habits.
Due to this post, THE HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY has been sent to a pre-ordered Kindle Paperwhite 3G.
I bought my first Kindle KK3/Keyboard in April 2011, and now my total Kindle library has ballooned to 5283 items, including books, periodicals, apps, games and PDF items, spread across a couple KK3, a Kindle Touch and a Kindle Fire.
I’ve been downloading so much fiction that one collection got full and had to start a new collection for fiction. I have the book THE HAMMER OF GOD by Bo Giertz, but have not read it yet. It is a Lutheran fiction novel about three pastors learning the necessity of relying on God’s grace. TO LIVE WITH CHRIST, a collection of devotional writings by Bo Giertz, a Lutheran pastor, is also available on Kindle and is published by CPH.
I have non-fiction, Lutheran (including The Lutheran Study Bible, Book of Concord, and various CPH books), Bible related books and fiction, both Christian and other, memoirs, biographies, and reference/how-to books as well. One great source of Kindle items is the Kindle Daily Deal and the list of the top 100 free bestsellers in all genres on Amazon, and they do contribute in building up a library rather quickly.
I’ve been taking the Kindle on airline flights and on trips and everywhere, including to work. It has been hard of late to keep up with reading on the Kindle, but I do try to do some. One book I finished was 11/22/63 by Stephen King. This morning I was downloading a Peshitta New Testament, an offshoot of my reading of the THE APOCRYPHA, Lutheran edition!
I just finished “The Hunger Games” last night. I’m glad I read them. I’ll say no more until you finish, but I’ll be interested in your reaction to the books.
Re: The Hunger Games, there’s a very insightful commentary about the trilogy here:
http://www.damaris.org/content/culturewatcharticles/1380
I use my iPad3 for reading novels- I have “The Hunger Games,” the Harry Potter Series, the series “A Song of Ice and Fire,” and many more. I’ve found that it’s great for just that–novels–but I can’t seem to focus very well when reading theology. I downloaded a lot of the pdfs needed for seminary classes onto my iPad, but I seem to get a better grasp of the point if I actually print off the pdfs and mark them up. I think it’s because I need to keep going back to see how the writer builds up the points he wants to make, whereas I don’t need to do that with a novel.
Same here, but….with the Kindle App, I have discovered that you can make highlights and then, print them all out when you are finished reading. I also like the ability instantly to look a word up in a linked dictionary. But as I said in my post, my reading on the Kindle or in the Kindle App tends to be, most usually, fiction. I too prefer “old fashioned formatted” books, on paper, for non-fiction, particularly theology.