The Kindle Effect?

These last few days have been kind of strange for me. I’m completely and utterly shattered, but I’ve been like that all summer, which is also the reason why there haven’t been any new articles on this blog. Lately however, I’ve rediscovered one of my old passions that I thought I’d lost for good: Reading. Yes, you read that right, pun fully intended. For a long time, I was an avid reader, counting my bookshelf as one of the most prized possessions in my home. In the aftermath of the death of my parents, this desire to read began to drift away, so slow that I didn’t even notice it. Even when I attempted to rekindle my love for reading, it didn’t quite work. I didn’t even manage to get more than halfway through a book that I purchased during my trip to Providence, and that’s been over two years now. 

Recently however, that’s changed. In the last week, I’ve worked my way through two novels, and I’m halfway through a rather sizeable non-fiction book. This hasn’t so much been brought about by a change in mindset or energy, the latter of which is still pretty much at zero, but rather due to the simple fact that I recently purchased a Kindle. A full review on the device is in the works, I’ve got the rough notes open in OneNote on a second screen as I’m writing this, but the changes this little device has brought about are so remarkable that I just couldn’t leave it uncommented.

I'd have never thought it possible, but this little black gadget has turned me into an avid reader again.

Now I know that even now in 2020, e-readers such as Kindle are a sensitive subject, doubly more so when they’re locked-down proprietary devices such as the aforementioned Amazon Kindle. This type of vendor lock-in is certainly worth discussing in another post, but that would just cause this short article to balloon to “academic paper” dimensions, and I have neither the inclination nor the time or the hallucinogenic substances for that at the moment. For now, I just want to concentrate on the weird effect this little device has had.

I’m not sure whether it’s to do with the fascination that any new device brings with it, or whether it’s just the easier handling that you get compared to a real book, but you can’t argue with the results. It probably didn’t hurt that both of the books, Lindsay Ellis’ debut novel Axiom’s End and Iain M. Banks’ Consider Phlebas, are absolute page-turners That I’ll probably re-read quite a few times down the years. Still, the fact that I’m also attacking non-fiction books again speaks for this “Kindle effect” My current Kindle library is still rather limited at the moment, which rather reduces the sample size for further “investigation”, a.k.a. binge reading, quite considerably, however as the evenings draw nearer outside, I’m sure I’ll find out whether this effect is sustainable, or if it indeed extends to classical paper books, for now however, it’s good just to be able to read again.

That being said, I’ll definitely never go full Kindle. I love my paper books too much for that. Besides, most e-readers use e-ink displays that can only show images in greyscale, making them useless for any non-fiction books that have extensive images. As such, Rowland White’s latest work, Harrier 809, will definitely be gracing my bookshelf in physical form once it comes out later this year. You should definitely check out his books by the way. They have a very definite aeronautical and military slant but are exceedingly well written and the narrative passages are on par with the likes of Tom Clancy at their best.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Did I start reading again because I felt like it, or because this new e-reader simply made it easier? I honestly don’t know the answer to that question. Whatever the reason behind this sudden change is, it feels good to simply be able to read again. The sheer pleasure of just sitting on the sofa with a book, whether electronic or otherwise, with some nice music playing in the background, is something that I’d almost completely forgotten. So here’s to rediscovering old bliss!