So I bought a Kindle.

Did I announce this yet? I don’t think I made it official. I ordered it last night at 10 pm, so I guess not.

        I have more important and interesting things to say, but those will have to wait. Why?

        Because I just bought a digital copy of a 1.1 kg book I own - for those of us who don’t think in metric (pretty much everyone because we’re all overly American), that’s a little over two pounds. I’m not going to lie - half the reason I haven’t finished the book is because there’s no comfortable way to read it. I seriously cannot manoeuvre it/my body into any position that will allow for extended reading. It’s not even like a good workout. It’s just a gradual build-up of pain, until I get so distracted I can’t keep reading.

        I don’t know whether it’s pathetic or awesome that I spent $10 to re-buy a book I already own in order to actually finish it. I don’t feel guilty about it, and in fact I’d buy a dozen digital copies if I knew the money would be sent directly to the author, but it’s just a very strange and very significant event.

        In other news, I have 125 books in my Kindle library, only one of which I paid for. To transfer these to my Kindle, which I do not yet have, I ask my computer to e-mail them to my @kindle.com e-mail address. When I turn on my Kindle and connect it to my wi-fi, they will be downloaded automatically and synced to where I left off reading them on my PC. I can also e-mail text documents, .pdf files, and .jpgs to my @kindle.com e-mail address and they’ll be converted and added to my library.

        I’ve already downloaded the books I need to read for my courses, because you’re always reading the classics, and the classics rarely have valid copyrights these days. I’m not saving much money, but I’m saving backpack space (valuable) and it’s convenient (also valuable).

        I don’t even have the thing yet and I’m already debating which books I care to physically have in my library. I imagine that at the age 45, when having a library should be cool, people will laugh at me for having physical copies of books.