I Sold My Kindle To Prove A Point
I absolutely love the idea of being able to carry around hundreds of thousands of books with me at any one time without the burden of weight, and the impracticality of such a feat thanks to e-readers such as the kindle. What I don’t like is that I will never 100% own those books.
As the weeks go on, I’m finding out more and more of the different changes and rules Amazon are placing upon Kindle and none are in the favour of readers and authors alike.
The problems I’ve discovered so far:
When paying for an ebook, you are effectively paying for a licence to “loan” the book.
Amazon has every right to remove books from the kindle store if they no longer want to sell it. The problem with this is that you will never be reimbursed for your purchase. Remember: it is just a loan.
Book covers can be changed and edited as well as pages and words removed or added without your knowing or permission.
Prices of ebooks are on the rise. In most cases they’re near enough the same; in some they’re more than purchasing a physical copy. And in only one of those options, you own the book outright.
Now, Amazon are removing your right to download your kindle books.
As an author, avid reader and book collector, I am displeased that my favourite book can be altered and edited without my permission and even be removed from my library because the powers that be no longer want me to have access to it.
I’ve decided to make the change to go back to physical books.
Here are the benefits I’ve found:
I pay more attention to how much I spend on books as I’m no longer just hitting a quick, ‘buy now’ and download immediately button.
I can annotate and draw in my books and tab them with coloured sticky tabs.
There’s nothing quite like rearranging and reorganising your book shelf/shelves as your collection grows.
I’m no longer out of sight, out of mind as I can now see my entire library in full. Goodbye scrolling for ages to find my next read.
Don’t get me wrong: Kindles are so handy and so aesthetic! It really did help me to read so much quicker and made it easier for me to read at anytime, in any place. I also loved the fact that the screen didn’t have any blue light so I was still able to fall asleep after reading. What I didn’t like was the lack of colour for the covers and illustrations but most of all, the lack of ownership.
There’s something top tier about being able to take a pen and write in your books and know that they’re there to stay unless I choose to remove them.
I sold my kindle to make a point to myself about what I will stand for. You don’t have to do the same. It’s just good to know that you have options and that you don’t have to just go with the flow because a big corporation thinks they’re setting the “new” standard.
Do you prefer physical books or ebooks?