The Future of Books - eReader Revolution

I have to admit - I was one of those people who never thought I would like an eReader. "I like my paperbooks," I said. "Love the feel of them. The smell of them. I think those eReader screens would hurt my eyes." But as time went by and I started to see more people reading from Kindles and Sonys and Nooks, I began to get curious.

Then I got one.

Mothers Day, 2010. My husband gave me an iPad. Now, truth be told, I use the Kindle app for my iPad and purchase all ebooks from the Kindle store - I personally prefer Amazon's site for book selection. It's SUPER user friendly and helpful in terms of offering ideas for future reading. But that's off topic. And quite frankly, if my husband hadn't bought me the iPad, I would have a Kindle instead.

Why I now LOVE my eReader.

1) It's easy to take anywhere, so I ALWAYS have a book with me.

I can't tell you how many times I've been somewhere, not knowing I would have to wait longer than 2 minutes. I'm not the kind of person who can just sit and twiddle my thumbs. I HAVE to be doing something every minute of the day. For those impromptu waits, I have my eReader ready - books loaded.

2) Notice I said, "books loaded." PLURAL.

This is the thing I love most! I have very eclectic taste in reading. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a mystery, other times I might want to be reading something more serious - a piece of women's fiction maybe or a biography, and yet other times, I may just want something silly and fun. Well, with the eReader, I can load a book anytime, anywhere. Right now, I have over twenty books on my iPad Kindle app, ready and waiting to be read. So when I'm stuck at the car repair shop waiting forty minutes when they said it would be five, I pull out the eReader, decide what reading mood I'm in, open the appropriate book and I'm in business.

3) Ease of purchase.

Someone mentions a book I should be reading - I don't have to wait for the next time I'm out near the bookstore. I have the bookstore at my fingertips. Now when someone says, "You should read this book," I pull out my iPad, go to the Kindle store, pull up the book, look at the description, read a few Customer Reviews and if it looks like the kind of book I want, I CLICK, and *VOILA* I have a book. It's a miracle I tell you. A miracle.

4) It's not cumbersome.

I never really realized how cumbersome a paper book can be until I started reading on an eReader. Now, there's no turning pages, no losing my place (the eReader starts right back up where you left off!), and I you want to get in that SUPER comfortable position for a good long read, the eReader makes it even easier on you because now all you have to do is CLICK that little button to move to the next page. No longer do I have to pull my arm out of it's warm nook to turn the page. I can have my finger on that button, and in a nano-second, I'm on the next page.

There are probably a million other reasons why I love my eReader, but I won't bore you by blathering on and on. Those points are the biggest for me and I just thought I'd like to share today.

As for finding GREAT books at GREAT prices on my eReader, I love to find websites that dedicate themselves to advertising BARGAIN eReads. On of my favorites is Daily Cheap Reads.com. Not only do they list eBooks under $5.00 several times each day, but there is a great data base of wonderful books to search by genre. This site is definitely one to check out.

There's no doubt in my mind that eReaders are the way of the future, but that the FUTURE is here NOW. Soon, they'll be as commonplace as iPods and probably even cell phones. Kids in school won't have text books anymore, they'll have eReaders - no more heavy backpacks to carry. Same for Colleges and Universities.

That's the way I see it anyway. Only time will tell! In the meantime, I SURE AM LOVING MINE!!!

Have a happy weekend everyone!

And as always, thank you for following my blog.