I have written in this blog before about Kindle ereaders. There are several other kinds, such as Kobo and Nook, but I think the Kindle has superior prices and selection. I do think it is interesting that apps for other ereaders can be downloaded to tablets and phones. Doing that would enable a person to try different readers.
Offering a book printed on paper means dealing with a physical object that can be stored, resold and handled. Ebook files are electronic impulses that cause a book's words to appear but in a sense are not physical objects. Ebooks can fit in tiny spaces, are more or less weightless, and do not need to be shelved or dusted. Some of those same convenient properties would make them easy to steal or otherwise mishandle. So, various sellers have DRM (digital rights management) parts in their book files to control who does what with the ebooks. Programs such as Calibre can modify or remove the DRM bits but I don't get into any of that.
The other day, my yoga teacher mentioned the book "Trusting the Gold" by Tara Brach. I did not know she was going to mention it nor read a bit of it aloud. But within 30 seconds, I had my own copy of that book. That speedy obtaining a book, if it is available in Kindle format, is one of the main features I like.
Another feature of Kindle reading that can be helpful is highlighting. Normally, highlights are made with a marker. But Kindle highlights can be made with a fingertip. Just draw a fingertip along words you want to mark. You can set the software to use different colors of highlighting but I don't have a need to do that. To me, the best thing about Kindle highlighting is that a computer file, much like a typical email, can easily be sent to my email account. The file comes as a PDF and as a spreadsheet and includes all the highlights I made from that book and the location in the book of each comment. Such a file can be saved in my Google Drive or copied and pasted on a website page such as this one: https://sites.google.com/view/kirbyvariety1/bonk-mary-roach-highlights
I think that a list of the highlights I found worth marking is a usable condensation of my own reading of a particular book. (Note: I compose these blog posts in Google Docs which I open in my Google Drive. Doing that gives me a separate collection of my posts. By the way, the Google spell-language checker that is part of Google Docs is an excellent tool and helps me keep typos to a minimum.)
