Why Kindles leave me cold
I keep seeing people with ebook readers on the tube and it looks so uninspiring. Here’s what I think you’re missing with a Kindle and why my shelves will always be full:
- The weight, thickness and texture of a book is part of the story
- You can’t glance at a shelf of ebooks and know which one’s most loved
- Heavily broken spines are a far better review than a five-star rating
- Forgotten, makeshift bookmarks from train tickets, receipts and letters, scrawled notes in margins, underlined words, numbers from phone-held-between-ear-and-shoulder conversations
- Handwriting that isn’t your own
- Tears, stains and creases, sand stuck in the glue, dog-eared, warped and crumpled pages
- An author’s illegible signature
Books hold the reader’s story too
