I love books, I adore books, if I could I would marry books! I have dozens of books just sitting on the shelves, watching me with their wonderful covers …
So here’s a situation I often find myself in: I’m reading a book, a wonderful book, and I’m almost finished! Just a few pages left, and I can’t wait to reach the end. But I have to go somewhere. No problem, I’ll just take the book with me. But I only have a few pages of entertainment left … So I’ll bring another book with me to read. So, two books and some other stuff in my backpack. Not that much, but quite inconvenient.
Another situation I’m well known to: I’m going on a holiday, and of course I’m bringing a book. I read about one book in two days or less, so I usually bring a lot of books with me on vacation. The airline companies love me! I always have to pay extra because my suitcase is too heavy.
So, what are the downsides of these two situation? Although the airline companies like me very much, my back isn’t that pleased with me carrying around all those books. Also, despite me bringing a lot of books, I usually still find myself left with nothing to read anymore (it’s amazing how much one person can read in a short period of time …) and I go on a hunt for some books in English (because when going to a foreign country, the chances that you will find a book in Dutch are not that big). I have a hard time saying goodbye to books, so I take them home with me, where they start to collect dust.
I think books are wonderful. I’ve always been an avid reader and I’m pretty sure I always will be. But lets face it, all those books may be good for our minds, but not so good for the environment. Think about all the paper that you need for making books and all the ink to print them. I’m pretty sure I have a few trees worth of books lying around the house.
I DO NOT say people should stop writing, publishing, buying, and reading books! Books are freedom, or at least, that’s how I think about it. But maybe there’s an other alternative for reading books …
For a long time I was very against e-readers. But after reading a bit about the effects of books on the environment I came to the conclusion that I would have to compromise. I don’t want to stop reading, but I also don’t want the environment to suffer because of me. So I got myself an e-reader. And o boy, I’m a fan! At first, it felt a bit strange, reading from a screen that looks exactly like the pages of a book. But after I got used to it, it was wonderful! I can carry around all the books I want, they don’t take any place up in my house, it’s not that bad for the environment and the screen is kind to my eyes. O yes, the e-reader is very minimalistic.
Having doubts about getting one because you like paper books so much? I know the feeling. But then I realized I can still borrow real books at the library!
Yes, an e-reader is a bit of an investment. I got myself a Sony Reader Wi-Fi PRS-T1 (I know the Kindle is big in the USA, but not in Europe), which is 150,00 EUR (that’s around 188 USD (although I’ve seen online that you can get one for around 120 USD) and around 120 GBP). I also got myself a vegan-friendly cover (I didn’t even knew that those things existed, until I went on a search for something different than a leather cover) to protect the e-reader.
My baby
Conclusion: I’m very pleased with my e-reader! I like that you can borrow e-books at the library, that you can find free books only and buy books online you can read right away. Maybe you consider getting one too? Go and see if you can try one out at the store or at a friend’s house. If you have any questions, just let me know.
Upgrading your life with less 
I’m so torn on this issue… My sister just got an e-book reader and she’s got access to all these cheap, wonderful masses of stories now and is reading ALL THE TIME (even while cooking!) and that is just making me go green with envy. On the other hand, I just love the feel and smell of books – the newly-bought-never-been-opened-smell, and the smell of faintly damp used books, and the smell when you enter a room in which dozens of books are standing there in the shelves, looking at you with their beautiful covers and enticing titles… *sigh* Also, I don’t like the problem of formats (one reader only uses this, another only this,… whatever, whatever, whatever). So yeah, very ambivalent about this… 😦
I understand your dilemma. I like all these things about books you’re talking about. But you know what? You’ll survive without them 😉 You can still walk around in a book store to smell the fresh books or go to the library to smell the damp, used books. And when it comes to the whole format-problem: I know what you mean! That’s why I went with the e-reader which is supporting most of the formats available. I still buy some real books every once in a while, especially cooking books, if they’re not available as an e-book. So maybe you can make a deal with yourself? Only buy the real books you really love when they’re not available as an e-book?
Yes, I might. I’ve started looking at readers, but I’m not convinced by any yet. But you’re right, it would be good to find someone who uses the product you’re interested in so you can use it for a bit and see how it handles. 🙂
I finally broke down and joined the e-reader revolution, simply because all my books were getting destroyed by my active toddler. I can read books on my iphone. My issue is that once you commit to your brand of e-reader, you can’t cross over. If you get a Kindle, it only reads Kindle books. You get a Kobo, you can only read Kobo books… but there are books one or the other just don’t have. Which is why I read them on my phone… I can put both aps on my phone and read them all. It is not a good compromise.
Kindle isn’t big in the Netherlands, so I went for a Sony. But I did do some research on other e-readers, such as Kobo and noticed that most e-readers support EPUB and PDF, which are the formats most e-books come in (well, at least here in the Netherlands). I’m not a big fan of reading from a tablet, because the screen makes my eyes hurt after a while.
As far as I KNOW, Kindle is the only one that doesn’t support EPUB, though you can read PDFs on them, I think… That’s what made me shy away from the Kindle.
I also read a LOT, but I’ve borrowed an e-reader for a while and it’s not perfect for me yet. However, I still have enough paper books to read, so I can wait with buying one 🙂 I would like to get a secondhand e-reader though, if possible – because for a new one, there are still resources being used (and if you recycle an e-reader you don’t get everything back). So… I’m not in a hurry, but I’ve already started collecting some e-books 🙂 (yay for Project Gutenberg!)