Dan Goes to the Dark Side (of Reading)

I had been opposed to e-readers for a while.  Like since the day I heard about them being invented.  I believed in the reading experience.  Digitized books just seemed like cheating.  It would be like to compare eating junk food at McDonald's to fine dining - eating McD's conveniently prepared and affordable menu options may cure you of hunger but there is certainly a better way to go about getting nourished.  I never judged those that read off an e-reader, but it wasn't a format for me, and I had no intentions of ever changing.

Until last week.  

That was when a coworker told me about NetGalley, a website that allows those in the various book professions to get free digital copies of upcoming books prior to their release for the sake of publicity and reader feedback.

Books are uploaded to the website, and like an online book store, members may peruse and select titles they want to read.  When you request a title, that inquiry is sent to the publisher that owns the book, and they view your profile and decide if you can benefit them by reading it early.  If they think you bring something to the table (cough, $$$), they'll send you an e-mail notice and you can load the book to your e-reader of choice right away.  So I made a profile and tried to make a case for free books based on all the events I do around teen titles (which is entirely true), even providing links to some of the news stories that have featured my programs for youth.  I then started "shopping" and requesting upcoming releases that looked good, and finally waited like a kid waiting for Santa to come on Christmas eve, hoping and praying (okay, not praying...yet) for publishers to grant my reading wishes.  Then these wishes starting getting granted, one book after another.  As all these amazing digital advanced reading copies (ARCs) began piling up, I knew that I finally needed to break down and get an e-reader.

I consulted a good friend who reads like her life depends on it and owns just about every e-reader ever concocted, and she suggested the Kindle Paperweight as the best device for simply reading books - all I would need it for.  I placed my order (Amazon, you should give my friend a % of the profits), it arrived, I opened it up, and ten minutes later I was...in the emergency room.

Now, my freak medical issue probably had nothing to do with the Kindle, but I almost felt it was a warning from the reading gods that I crossed over into reading hell and this was my punishment.  That being said, once I was recovered I went back to the device and began to play.

I am currently 37% into one of my first approved ARCs, The Returned by Jason Mott, and not only is the book great, but the Kindle reading isn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be.  My eyes aren't tired.  I am reading faster.  I do miss the act of putting the bookmark into it's place and seeing my progress, but the cool/eerie screensavers have given me a new something to look forward on my breaks from reading.

All in all, I am kind of excited about my Kindle.  That's something a past version of myself never would have thought possible.  I still don't love that anything you buy from Amazon is TECHNICALLY their property and they can alter it or remove it at any time without warning (fine print!), but I can overlook that Big-Brotherish policy as I plan to only use the device for things from my library and from NetGalley.  Who knows, a year from now I might only want to read off the Kindle, but I don't see that happening.

As Morgan Spurlock learned, you can't eat junk food all the time - right?