It’s no secret that I love reading on my Kindle. And I’ll tell you, I have a lot of people tell me that they prefer reading a real book rather than using a device. Well. The book is real whether you it’s a hardcover, a paperback, large print or on a tablet. It’s real if you listen to it on audio or have someone read it to you. It’s the words, my friends, that are real, not the way that you access the words. Honestly, as a librarian, I don’t care how you read, I just care that you read.

Today I’m going to share with you three reasons why I prefer reading on my Kindle over reading a traditional book.

1. It’s lightweight. Whether I’m reading a book in the Outlander series, which is likely to be 900+ pages, or whether I’m reading the super short This Is Water, the Kindle weighs the same. Not only that but it holds files for all the books I may want to read on vacation and it still weighs the same.
2. It tracks my reading speed and estimates how much time I have left to finish a book. As a competitive little thing, this makes me read faster, I swear. I liken it to trying to beat the time that the GPS says I’ll arrive somewhere. The Kindle tells me there are 4 hours and 12 minutes left in the book? I bet I can finish in 4 hours and 10 minutes. Ha! Okay, so maybe not really on that last bit but I do think I read faster on the Kindle. And I like knowing how long a book will probably take me from start to finish and I really really like seeing how much time is left before I’m done. As a side note, if you don’t like that little feature you can turn it off and just show page numbers. Or nothing at all, even, if you want to be completely surprised.
3. I can read in bed without the light on. This is, hand’s down, my favorite thing about my Kindle. I read in bed every night and it’s cozy and sleep inducing to be in a dark room with just the glow of my back lit paperwhite.

I wasn’t paid by Amazon to write this post, although I would have said yes if they’d asked! And I get that there is a tactile thing that’s missing by not holding an actual book and turning the pages and smelling that wonderful smell. But guess what? I work in a library and I can get a good whiff of that lovely musty book smell whenever I want.

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