With Earth Day coming up this Friday, I figured it’s high time I do my share to contribute to a cleaner environment, not necessarily through the books I write (though that would be nice) but also the ones I buy. Everything’s digital now, and though I kicked and screamed all the way to this party, I finally broke down and purchased myself a Kindle.
Hear me out before you judge. I make tremendous use of
my beloved library membership, checking out dozens of books, possibly more,
each month. But I also have a little book-buying fetish, one that I justify by
the fact that my library system doesn’t carry all the books I’m interested in
reading. (They’ve cited vague purchasing criteria whenever I’ve recommended a
new title so I’ve finally given up.)
But the books I buy are slowly taking over my house. They’re
expensive, collect dust, and breed tiny critters. I don’t reread most of them. And whereas once they were my pride and joy, now
I hope no one trips over them getting from one room to
another. More on that later, but in the meantime, I've discovered
another problem.
Did you know deforestation to clear way for new neighborhoods is
one of the leading causes behind the spike in Lyme disease? The paper industry claims they use mostly recovered paper and lumber byproducts (such as sawdust and wood chips) to make paper but still: the United States alone prints more than 2 billion books, 350 million
magazines, and 24 billion newspapers each year. That’s a lot of reading material, not counting all the many other types of paper products we not only consume but fill our landfills with.
As though those weren’t reasons enough, the cost of the Kindle went down from $189 over the holidays to $168 a few
months ago, $139 a few weeks ago when I bought it, and I see there's a new offer for $114 today. That’s a substantial difference from the $250 the Nook is going
for, which made it easy for me to decide between the two. (However, since then, a friend told me
there’s a way to use the Nook as a small handheld computer, a feature that may
make the extra cost worthwhile for some of you.)
So far, I like my little Kindle. It doesn’t display in color
as the Nook does, but that’s okay. I read my books in black and white anyway. It’s
easy enough for a technophobe like myself to navigate. I have yet to figure out
how to view the front and back covers, inside flaps, intro pages, and so on. I don’t see page numbers on my screen, though I’ll probably figure that
little feature out as soon as I post this. Instead, the bottom of the screen shows me what percentage of
the book I’ve read, which I’m not sure what to make of yet. (It’s a little
annoying, yet if I were holding a bound book, I’d probably be making a mental estimate anyway.) Also, I do find a lot of books aren’t yet available through Kindle.
Not worried about it though. I’m sure that’s changing quickly, plus it’s not like I’m giving
up paper books entirely.
Other than those quibbles, I’m fairly impressed. The no-glare screen in
particular makes you feel like you’re reading real print, not text from a computer
screen. I kept tilting the screen to all angles to see how that works but haven't figured it out yet. Also, the size of this extremely portable little device is hard to believe, even after seeing
pictures galore. Its height and width are about the size of a trade paperback
but much, much thinner. In fact, it’s only about a third the depth of my little
iPhone. As well, it took no time at all to charge the battery, which so far, seems to hold a
charge a good long while.
I recently won a copy of my first Kindle book, Bloodstains, through a Facebook contest by
author Jeff Mudgett. (Thank you, Jeff!) I just started reading this excellent memoir and, while I'm enjoying the book itself, I was
surprised to find I'm greatly enjoying the Kindle experience too. I’ve downloaded
free excerpts of other novels I’m interested in reading (ones not offered
through my public library) and found the prices on many others to be much lower
than their print counterparts. (Side note: I attended an agent panel a month
ago in which the agents said the low cost of digital books is not at all
industry sustainable and that, at some point soon, publishers will have to raise their
prices to match those of paper copies.)
Either way, I think I'm making a small contribution to
the environment while also making my life a bit easier. What could be better, right?
Speaking
of which, I'm clearing my shelves. If you're interested in winning a book from my collection, I'm conducting a random drawing for anyone who comments on any of our Earth
Day-related posts this week. (The more you comment, the better your chances of winning. NA bloggers excluded, of course!) Closing date for
the contest is Thursday, April 28, 9 pm
EST (New York time). The winner will be drawn at random, and we'll announce the
lucky winner on Friday, April 29. Good luck!
