I had been an eReader skeptic, but in the last year, I have been forced to reevaluate my relationship with my Kindle. Here is what I learned.
I love the printed word, and by the printed word, I mean ink on paper. I love the feel of books, the weight of them, and the promise they contain. I find the smell of old books intoxicating; that aroma combines an old, damp forest with nutmeg, vanilla, and almond spices. A scent found only in old books, making them like wine, both of which improve in quality with time.
My point is that I love books, so when the pandemic struck, the most disruptive element for me was the closure of the local bookstore and library. Oh, sure, I could still shop on Amazon, but that lacks the same appeal as being able to lift a book and try it on for feel. So what was I to do?
I turned to an accomplice I have had a rocky relationship with, my Kindle. This little device certainly has its appeal. It is small, yet models available today can carry from 3,000 to 15,000 depending on the memory of your particular device (although only about 1,500 for the old device I was using). The backlit display is nice for nighttime reading, especially when you are in bed and your partner wants to get to sleep, but you must finish the chapter. Yet, I viewed mine with distrust. I believed that my Kindle was fine for reading fiction and having fun, but I questioned its robustness when reading serious nonfiction.
Are Paper or Electronic Books Better?
I have an intuitive feeling that I learn better by reading from printed books. I get a certain geographic feel for where facts can be found in the book. Moreover, I read with a highlighter and pen at the ready to annotate as I go. I couldn’t believe that the reading experience for serious nonfiction could be as good on a 6-inch screen as in a hardback book. And science backed me up with initial studies that showed reading speed and comprehension were inferior on a screen than on paper. But more recent studies have called those early findings into question and have had difficulty showing any difference in learning between paper and screen.
It wasn’t the science that got me to change my tune; it was the early days of the pandemic. Unable to access my local library, when I found myself with a windfall of reading time, I turned to the only options available, downloading digital books. What I learned is that I had been underestimating the capabilities of my little black and white screened friend. Here are the reasons I came to love my Kindle and what I have done to make the experience even better.
The Digital Library
Unlike the physical libraries that closed when the pandemic struck, the digital libraries remained open. I found that the offering at my local branch exceeded my expectations. Better than that, I learned from the librarian that I could apply for library access to other libraries in the state, which greatly expanded the catalog available to me. Some libraries only opened to wider clientele during the pandemic, but some are always available. Your local librarian may be the best person to ask.
Also, unlike the brick-and-mortar libraries and bookstores, the digital library is always available. You can access it twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. So if you finish your current book, you are only a few keystrokes away from the next one.
The digital library allows you to join a waiting list for high-demand items like the public library. Unlike the physical library, the digital library sends me a text message when a book becomes available, and I can download it immediately. There is no need to make a trip to the library to pick up the book and no waiting for regular business hours. Using Overdrive and Libby applications, it’s easy to search for books, download them, and manage your account. At the end of your lease, you have the option to renew if no one else is waiting, and if they are, the book will be returned automatically, so you never have to worry about late fees.
Things a Book Can’t Do
Although an eReader does not have the comforting feel or smell of a printed book, the digital book can do many things that “analog” books can’t.
Dictionary
Highlight any word on the page, and Kindle will bring up the dictionary to define the word for you. If that is not enough, you can also access Wikipedia for a more detailed description of the topic. Wiki can be helpful when the book you are reading references events or issues you might not be familiar with. The advantage is that unlike using an iPad or similar tablet where it is easy to jump over to the internet and get lost, the limitation of the eReader helps avoid distraction.
There is even a translation feature that is helpful when you encounter a foreign word in your text.
Highlight and annotate
Just like a printed book, you can highlight and annotate a digital book. Use your finger to trace the text you want to highlight, and the device will not only emphasize it on your screen, but it will also save that selected text to the internet so you can access it on other Kindle devices or your computer. Best of all, those highlights and notes remain yours even after returning the book to the library. You can access your annotations at any time by going to read.amazon.com/notebook.
Suppose you like to take notes from your books and copy out favorite passages. In that case, the ability to access those notes and quotes on your computer makes it easy to copy and paste them into other programs or to share them on social media. This feature became one of the big things that turned me on the potential for learning from ebooks.
Search within the book
One downside to the ebook is that you never get the satisfaction of rifling the pages. On the other hand, one frustration of ink and paper is that it can be aggravating when you can’t find that passage you want. With Kindle, you can search within the book, and it will show you all the relevant passages for the terms you entered. You can also pull up a list of all the selections you have highlighted so that you can quickly reference those areas without having to flip through the entire book searching for them.
These are the features that made me recognize the power of the Kindle as a learning tool. It has now become my preferred means of reading because of the ease of making notes and referencing the book later.
Free Downloads
Amazon offers over 10,000 books available for you to read for free. These free titles range from classic to romance, mystery, suspense, fantasy, and science fiction. You can check out what is available here. And if you are an Amazon Prime member, you have access to Prime Reading, where you can download free books, magazines, and even comic books (better read on an iPad or other tablet.)
You can even loan books from your library to a friend or family member. This feature proved useful during the pandemic as it allowed my daughter to read and share books with her grandparents for a bit of distance bonding and reading.
Take Your Library with You
I wish I had started using my Kindle more seriously long before now. In a few months, my family and I will be moving to New Zealand to live and work for a year. As I look at my collection of highlighted and annotated books, I have to make the hard decision of which few to take and what to do with the rest. If I had started reading on my Kindle years earlier, all those books and notes could go with me. Not only would I have all of them, but they would be in an easy-to-search format on my computer, phone, and tablet, as well as on my Kindle.
What I Have Done
To upgrade my digital reading experience, I purchased a Boox Nova (affiliate Link)to replace my early generation device. The Boox Nova is an android based device that can run Kindle, but it can also be used as a note pad, drawing pad, or platform to run other software like Pocket. I will be honest, it is not as straightforward to use as a Kindle, but the things I like about it are the bigger screen and the multicolored light. It always bugged me you never see as much text on the Kindle screen as you would on the page of a book. The larger screen on the Boox Nova might not be equal to a book page either, but it is closer, and I find that makes for a more satisfying reading experience.
The other feature I like about the Nova is that the led lights come in two colors; warm and cold. During the day, the cold light helps add contrast to the text and makes reading easier on my eyes, but at night, I appreciate the choice of color most. That is when I turn on the warm light, which gives the device a candlelight color perfect for reading in bed.
My one accessory
There is one accessory I added to my eReader besides the requisite protective case. That is something to protect it from water damage so I can read while enjoying the hot tub. Third-party manufacturers sell various waterproof cases, but what I have been using is a Ziplock bag. It’s the right size, costs little, works well, and if it gets damaged, I just grab another one out of the kitchen. Sorry if you were hoping for some fantastic new product; I’m just a simple guy who prefers simple solutions.
Conclusion
The pandemic made me take my Kindle more seriously than I ever had before, and I’m glad it did. Now I have access to more books than I had even imagined possible. I now find the Kindle the ideal tool for learning thanks to the highlighting, note taking, dictionary, Wikipedia, translation, and search features. Not only can I take thousands of books with me wherever I go, but I can have access to my highlights and notes from any computer even if I have returned the book to the library.
If you want to learn what is available in your library system and how to use the Libby and Overdrive applications to take advantage of the service, consult with your local librarian. You will likely be surprised at what is available to you in the world of digital reading; I know I was.
