Just Kindles…

I have always had a love for books, especially those that were full of adventure and mystery. The Hardy Boys first mesmerized me when I was nine with their adventures. I remember running “pell-mell” in our back yard with my friends. Then came Stephen King and his own unique kind of crazy. When I got into high school I traveled with Kerouac, the Merry Pranksters, and the Hells Angels as they each created their own individual kind of mayhem. And I devoured them all.

I remember scouring the shelves in book stores looking for something to read. I usually didn’t stray much from the familiar, but at times I would take a leap of faith and read something from a genre that I wasn’t familiar with or maybe just didn’t like. For me at that age that was a big deal. These days I’ll read just about anything.

I remember the smell of new books and how it was almost intoxicating. I remember folding the crease of the page that I left off on instead of using a bookmark. I also remember putting books down and then spending hours trying to find them. I never read one book at a time. If I saw a book I wanted to read, I bought it and started reading that one as well.

Today, however, things have changed greatly. My Kindle has sanitized the entire process of reading. No more browsing through a bookstore or feeling the texture of the pages as you become part of the story. No more creased pages or paper bookmarks. Now you’re only a click away from any book that you desire.

Personally, I think that it is sad that kids today may never experience the smell of a new book or enjoy the entire process of going to the bookstore and finding something to read. Technology has made it too easy. It seems that technology is doing this with everything.

The good thing is I will never run out of anything to read.