Paper or E-reader?

Paper or E-reader--what's your pleasure when it comes to reading these days?

I have to say that I was one of those people who insisted I would never move to an e-reader. I love the feel of a book in my hands. I like the whole experience of holding it, smelling it, feeling the pages turn. And I still do.

However...my husband received a surprise gift for his birthday a year ago from our children--an e-reader. Their thinking was that he'd enjoy it, since he loves historical fiction and always has a stack of paperbacks he's working his way through. But my husband is also not really into technology, and he loves browsing through used bookstores to find the authors and series he likes, many of which aren't yet available as e-books. So, out of curiosity, I took it over. And I made a discovery: I loved it!

I especially liked the ease with which I could enlarge the type. After a day spent working at the computer, my eyes are tired in the evenings. What a boon to be able to make the print any size I wanted! I also enjoyed the fact that I wasn't adding yet another physical book to my already-crowded shelves each time I got a new book. And it was lovely to finish a book at ten in the evening, order the next in the series, and have it there to start reading in less than a minute. So I was a happy camper.

But the problem with technology is that there's alway something newer and better and faster coming along. For Christmas, one of my granddaughters received a Kindle Fire. On the few occasions when I was able to wrench it out of her fingers, I experimented, and I fell in love. The color, the beautiful covers all arranged on a shelf when I turned it on, and especially the back-lighting which made it even easier for my tired old eyes to read in the evenings.

At one point during the Christmas vacation, I looked around the room and discovered that everyone was reading--some with books, some with e-readers, one or two on computers. According to the grandkids, reading a book on an e-reader is the cool things to do!

My husband, noticing my preoccupation with Greta's new Fire, started to smile. "I suppose you'd like one of those for your birthday," he said, always at a loss to know what to get for someone with a January birthday. I agreed eagerly, and I'm enjoying my new Fire more than I'd have imagined.

Not that I'm giving up print books--far from it! I still want a print book if it's something I want to share, passing it on to my reading friends so that we can discuss it. I want a print book if it's a how-to, because I find it easier to spread the pages of a book out to study the illustrations. And I still have those old favorites that I want to pull from the shelves and enjoy again just as I did the first time around, yellowed pages and all.

So what's your pleasure? Have you succumbed to an e-reader, or does your reading pleasure depend upon the feel of a book in your hand? Does it matter, as long as you're reading?

Blessings,
Marta