It was my birthday on Friday. Even though I'm [age redacted], I'm still a fan of my birthday. Heck, I'm a fan of any excuse to throw a party. Plus, today is the American holiday of Memorial Day and it's always neat when my birthday falls in line with a three day weekend.
In my line of work, I have to read a lot of scripts. You have to be up on the latest and greatest if you want to be able to participate in the game and I was starting to fall behind. It wasn't convenient for me to do a ton of script reading. My printer is less than perfect, ink is expensive and it's wasteful to print that much. And you can't exactly cuddle with a laptop in bed at night.
My darling boyfriend (who is also in the industry) recognized this and took pity on me, buying me a Kindle for my birthday. I have been diligently avoiding e-readers for quite some time now. I'm not a techno-phobe, per se, but I truly love books. I love holding them and the way they smell and the rustling sound of pages being turned. I used to work in a library and I could get lost in the stacks for hours.
So, you can see why I approached the Kindle with extreme caution. I mean, it's nice. It really is. It's very light weight and it holds a lot of files. But...it's not a book. It's lacking the soul of the printed word.
Or is it?
As a writer, I have to recognize the value of the e-book. To quote Bob Dylan: the times, they are a-changing. A reasonably priced e-book is a great way to get your work out there and reach a broader audience. Case in point? Amazon has a "deals" page in their e-book section. Lots of things are either free or under $2. So I downloaded a couple of them. I had never heard of any of the authors, but the synopses sounded interesting and, hey, FREE. And, you know what? If I like these authors I will surely go and seek out further works by them. As a reader, it's virtually risk free. As a writer, it's a great marketing tool.
Plus, I gotta say, it's a lot easier to curl up at night with the Kindle.
Am I still on the fence about this? Yes. And I will continue to frequent my local library and buy actual, physical books. However, I think there's a big possibility that there's room for all types of technology in the bibliophile's world.
One thing I'm not on the fence about? This awesome gift from a dear friend.
In case you can't tell, it says "And then Buffy staked Edward. The end." I do love a good literary/Whedonverse joke.