18 months ago, I was flying from New York City home to Cleveland. The woman next to me on the airplane had an Amazon Kindle. While my office had one first-generation Kindle that we lent to faculty (not very popular, I might add), I remember taking a mental note about the woman's Kindle since it was one of the first times that I had really seen an e-book reader in the "wild".
Fast-forward to last week. On a flight from Florida to Ohio, I counted no less than 4 iPads and 6 Kindles on the airplane. While on vacation in Florida, I noticed people from all age ranges (from young adult to grandmothers) reading various e-book readers at the beach or the pool. Some even kept their e-book readers in one-gallon, clear plastic baggies so the reader would get sandy or waterlogged.
It seems that the "beach book" has been replaced by the "beach e-book reader". It doesn't have the same ring to it—but have you ever tried turning a page of an actual book while inside of a Ziplock bag?
Advantage e-book reader.
I have held off on getting an iPad or Kindle only for the fact that I still greatly enjoy the paper books. In one of my other grad classes we discussed if these technology pieces would eventually replace books totally. I know that after I've looked at a computer screen for awhile, my eyes begin to hurt or they just become tired from focusing, I love reading a paper back book. There's something about it that technology can't give you. I don't know exactly what it is, but it can't be replaced for me. While the ipad has a lot of other features besides reading books I'll still hold off for awhile longer.
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