E-books: are you reading them?

 

I'm a big reader. Reading is my hobby, my escape, my nightly ritual. Curling up on the sofa or in bed with a book is as pleasurable to me as, er, well most things. (Not all.) So the thought of curling up with an electronic e-reader just sounds blergh. Unappealing. How do you turn down the corner? If I fall asleep with it on my chest will I wake up with third-degree burns? Does it have that wonderful ink and paper smell of environmental destruction? So many questions.

Amazon's new and improved Kindle e-reader is out and BETTER! THAN! EVER! It's easier to read, thinner than an iPhone, has a long battery life and can store up 1500 books. It costs $359. I've never held a Kindle, so I really have no idea what it's like to read an e-book on one. Maybe it's not so bad. I have, however, tried reading an e-book on the computer. You can't actually call it reading, it's more like skimming. Kind of like I read just about everything on the computer. (I do worry that humankind is evolving into a people of very little attention span. Everything on the surface and easily digestible. Troubling.) I've watched the promo videos on the Kindle site, and they claim that it's far easier on the eyes than a computer screen.

There's the environmental argument in favor of e-books: fewer trees lost (I read somewhere that it took 8 million trees to publish the Harry Potter books alone); eliminating the toxic sludge and air pollution that come with using chlorine in the paper and printing the books; and of course transportation. On the other hand, we all know how destructive electronics are to the Earth: mining for metals, all the plastic used, and their planned obsolescence which has led to the huge e-waste problem. The Kindle has a one-year limited warranty -- big deal.

Amazon's Kindle store currently has over 230,000 books and I *think* most cost $9.99 to download. So over several years it would be a cost savings, if the e-reader actually held up that long. I don't know. I love books. I love newspapers. It's hard to imagine using a handheld device to read, and I question it's eco-friendliness. What about you? Have you tried it? Do you like reading e-books on the computer? Any thoughts on the eco-benefits or ramifications?