I've bought a Kindle!

I love reading. I love books. I own a lot of signed books. I own some books which are worth an awful lot of money. When I go on holiday for two weeks I take 10-12 books with me - big books - and read them all. I also travel around a lot with work a lot - you may have noticed - and sometimes books are a tad bulky, as is the 800 page hardback behemoth I'm currently reading.

So I bought a Kindle. I've always been opposed to the idea as I like the whole bookyness of books - the feel of the paper, the smell, the weight in my hand, the "clonk" they make when I put them on the bedside table (or the "BABOOM!" "Cedilla" makes, also rocking the house and scaring the cats next door) but the practicality of the Kindle was appealing, not least because when we go on holiday this summer the baggage allowances have been cut to 15 kilos instead of the usual 20, and the thought of taking fewer books just doesn't bear thinking about. So a Kindle it was.

The good:
- It's dinky! It is smaller than you imagine - maybe about the size of a DVD case but thinner.
- It takes up no room on a table! If I'm in a restaurant at a saddo table for one it will sit there next to my glass without me having to put the cruet, other table settings, flower arrangement etc. on the floor.
- It fits in my bag!
- It's light!
- Books come down onto it in about ten seconds via wifi!
- You can change the text size, font... everything!

All good, yes? Not quite.

The bad:
- It just feels soulless! It's a lump of plastic and doesn't have the same "feel" of a book.
- No page numbers! Seeing that you are 12% of the way through a book isn't the same as seeing you've made it to page 100 at last.
- It's actually quite boring to read! Two little things I miss when using the Kindle as opposed to reading a book: 1) moving my head to look at the left page then the right; 2) moving my hands to turn and smooth the pages. Your head remains fixed, and your thumbs just click buttons.
- I'm worried if more and more people buy these what will happen to our bookshops? Waterstones is already a shadow of its former self. I personally love browsing in bookshops, losing myself inside for a couple of hours or so, and browsing on Amazon just isn't the same, and if anything is harder to stumble upon something new and exciting.

Practical, yes. Portable, yes. As good as a book? No. I'm going to carry on buying "real" books, and if I'm going away and want a handier version I'll buy the Kindle edition if I feel the need. Good for authors that way too as I'll be buying the book twice - one copy to read, the other to keep on my shelf.

Not converted. Yet.