Yeah, I’m a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to fully embracing the digital age, as my ten-year-junior colleague likes to remind me. His direct quote was, “You’re not an antique. You’re, like, paleolithic.”
But here’s the thing; I LIKE paper. I LIKE rotary phones. I LIKE getting up to change the channel on the television by twisting a knob that frequently comes off in your hand.* I still write checks and personally deposit checks in to my bank account even though I was informed (by the aforementioned colleague) that this does not need to happen anymore and that it all can be done with my phone. Ugh. I LIKE writing checks and going to the bank. My phone does not offer me hard candy after every transaction. So suck it, junior.
SIDE NOTE: I don’t even like hard candy.
My significant other gave me a kindle for Christmas to gently ease me into the world of digital books, but also because it is a gadget and he is very gadgety. It’s very cool looking with a hard shell case that is a groovy orange color. It’s light. It fits in my purse and doesn’t need to take up space on the already full book case. It makes me feel tech savvy-er. But here’s what I’ve noticed about reading on a Kindle;
First and foremost, lack of author recognition by my brain. Without googling it, I can’t tell you the author of All the Light We Cannot See, a brilliant and beautifully written book that I’m currently reading. It’s become apparent that when reading paper books I spent a lot of time flipping back and forth from the page I was currently reading to the cover to check out the art, to the back to scan the brief reviews, to the inside page to see what the ISBN number was and when the book was published, all while subliminally recording the artist’s name in my brain for future reference.
On the Kindle there is no book flipping. If I hit the home button, there is a tiny image of the cover of the book, but the type is so small I can’t read the name of the author even with my extra strong reading glasses on. Sad face.
Yesterday, someone asked me what I was currently reading.
“All the Light We Cannot See” I said softly, knowing what question was coming next.
“Oh, that sounds intriguing! Who wrote it?”, she asked.
I CAN’T TELL YOU BECAUSE I HAVE A KINDLE SO I’M GOING TO HAVE TO GOOGLE IT ON MY PHONE I AM SORRY.
SIDE NOTE: After writing this post, I have now committed the author’s name to memory.
* We have an actual remote for our TV, I mean come on!