My Kindle Experience

Posted on June 23, 2021

Reading was always an integral part of my childhood. However, as a young student, being popular was not my forte, and relating with other children was difficult. Books were the escape that a young me needed to get through more challenging times. Fiction books like Harry Potter have granted me life-long memories that I hold dear even to this day. The problem with life is that we have less time to devote to leisure activities and reading fell to the wayside as I grew older. So how could I possibly re-kindle my love for reading? An Amazon Kindle. This month I’ll be discussing reigniting my passion for reading with a popular e-book reader and why it’s made reading effortless, accessible, and enjoyable for me once again. 

I’ve always been used to physical media. You purchase a book, you pick it up, turn the pages, etc. So what put me off the Kindle initially was the lack of familiarity. However, in practice, the Kindle that I purchased is about the size of a small book. In addition, the technology called “paper-white” makes the reading experience very similar to reading physical pages. For example, unlike reading from your phone, you don’t get the same eye strain from staring at a screen for an extended period with the Kindle. You’re also able to adjust the font size and font text within the Kindle, so there’s never a worry about reading small letters. The Kindle also comes with an inbuilt dictionary that allows you to lookup an unfamiliar word or term immediately. Lastly, you’re able to load as many books as you want onto it, and you never have to worry about having enough space to take them with you. All of these little conveniences make for a comfortable yet fundamentally different reading experience. 

The first book I loaded into my Kindle was 300 odd pages, and I finished that in an afternoon. Usually, I would read a few pages of physical media here and there, and it could take me a week to finish a book of that length. However, to complete a novel quickly took me back to the days when I could be done with a Harry Potter book within a day (yes, really!) I’ve always been an advanced reader, and I thought that I lost that talent as I got older. Also, unlike your phone, the Kindle does not get texts or emails, so the reading experience is limits distractions which is great. Since then, I’ve read books of varying lengths, and it’s only taken me 1-2 days to finish reading them. 

After using the Kindle for a few months, I don’t miss physical media as much as I thought I would. The thin and light package of the e-book reader and the ability to read at night without additional light are super convenient. Reading for fun was a childhood pastime that eluded me in adulthood, and the Kindle was able to give me back some of that enjoyment. Granted, I did have to force myself to read from the Kindle to create a habit again. But, technology can bring back nostalgic memories if you give it a chance sometimes. 

What about you? Are you a fan of physical media or e-readers? I would encourage you to look into them if you were an avid reader when you were younger and find yourself distracted into adulthood. Reading favorite books and discovering new authors within a few touches and taps is a beautiful experience that I wish I had tried sooner.