On the web page for this blog, https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/, there is a search window in the upper left corner. I used it to see how many of the 3202 posts have the word "Kindle" in them. I counted eight so this is the 9th time I have written about the electronic ereader from Amazon. I started this blog to write about a simple, 10 minute or less practice to increase mindfulness and enrich the experience of living. Nowadays, there are dozens of wonderful books about meditation, yoga classes that include meditative practice, free videos online and other tools. Just about the same time that I started this blog, I got my first Kindle and downloaded my first ebook.
I have been asked by friends if I am a secret agent working to promote the Kindle. I am not. I get no money from Amazon, Google or any of the other giant firms sometimes said to be endangering the world's freedom and future. I live in a fairly quiet corner of the US so being able to tell the object in my hand to acquire a book out of the blue, by means of what amounts to a cellphone call, is a mindboggling feature. So, what does it cost? The most popular Kindle is still highly recommended, the Paperwhite model. The price varies with sales but right now it is 1 cent less that $120. The cost of a book is often around $10 but many cost less and many cost more.
Many of my reading friends say they like to hold the paper book in their hands. I do, too. After a lifetime of reading actual books, it is indeed an adjustment to use a Kindle. I have found that a large part of that adjustment is learning to concentrate on what I want to read and not letting the other books right at hand call for switching to them. My Kindle reader currently contains 187 books. I have needed to learn a little extra discipline to stay with the book I am currently reading ("How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence" by Michael Pollan) when I have many other delicious ones right in my hand.
A purchased ebook can be read on all of your devices. It can sit in your Amazon archives indefinitely.
I often hear about the joy of highlighting. Kindles make it easy and quick to make a highlight. A file of the highlights from a book can be downloaded and printed or sent. A highlight can be immediately sent to Facebook or Twitter or other social media. In several ways, the highlighting and note taking possibilities are richer than with paper books.
