Journey to the Dark Side

I started learning to read when I was 4 and progressed pretty quickly. I always read fast and had a book (or two) with me wherever I went. Through the end of high school I was a big reader. My favorite genre of fiction was historic, particularly American colonial period through the 1800s. My favorite non-fiction to read was on the American Civil War.

Then I went to college and read and read and read and read. I enjoyed it, and I read some amazing books, but it was quite a bit of reading. Often, I would wish that I could take the time to actually read and understand everything the book had to say, but I was forced to get through so much so quickly that I could only read enough to get the main points. When I took a break from studying, the last thing I wanted to do was read. I tried, but I ended up staring blankly at the page, or I would suddenly realize that I had no idea what had happened over the course of the last page and a half that I had been 'reading.' 

When I graduated I looked forward to being able to enjoy reading again and look at it as a relaxing and pleasurable experience. Time went on and I'd read a book here or there, but I never got into it like I used to. I started books and then abandoned them without ever finishing. This was absolutely unheard of for me! I read 'Westward Ho!' in 10th grade and hated it every step along the way, but I finished it because I'd started it. 

It's been almost 3 years now since I've graduated and I'm still having a hard time with this. If I read a fiction book then I get sucked into the story and finish, but I have to make myself start it and procrastinate for awhile first. Non-fiction still feels like school work. I've listened to a bunch of audio books because it's easy to do that while I knit, but listening and seeing are different. I'm a visual learner, so while I enjoy listening to books, I prefer to read them with my own eyes. 

It's really two very different experiences. The readers voice and interpretation imposes itself on your understanding of the story. You might imagine a line of dialogue with very different inflection than what the reader uses. I listened to all of the Harry Potter books, but I would really like to read them again just because it's different when you're looking at the words yourself. 

Anyway, the point I'm getting around to is that I can't find a good way to prop a book up so that I can read while knitting...or at least read while holding my knitting in my hands and feeling like I'm accomplishing something...I can read and knit at the same time, but if the story gets intense it's easy to forget all else. So after years of being upset that digital books and e-readers are going to eradicate bookstores and libraries and make paper books more expensive and then rarely made and then obsolete, I broke down and purchased a Kindle. I feel like I'm betraying books, my bookshelf would be glaring at me if it could. I've gone to the dark side, but if it allows me to read more then it's worth it, right? It really does make it easy to carry lots of books around with you, no need to bring more bags of books than clothing on vacation. Books are stinking heavy and a pain to move too, not that I'm planning on getting rid of any of the books I have. I'm hoping that it will make it easier for me to read more often and then I'll get more into it and start reading more actual books than I have been too. It's like a nice middle road between reading real books and listening to books. 

Also, I can store knitting patterns on it. I think this alone would be worth it. I have so many patterns shoved in all corners of my room that I've used once or not at all. If I ever want to check an old pattern or use it again I need to print it again cause there's no way I can find it, yet instead of recycling them when I'm done using them once I save them in case I need them in the future. It would lessen the clutter, save paper/ink, and I can have all the patterns right there with me all the time. 

Bonus: I've seen so many cute e-reader covers that people have knit and now I get to make some!

We'll see how it turns out. It was quite a big decision to make and I wavered between Kindle and Nook and not buying one at all for about 2 weeks before I decided for sure.