Resistance is Futile? State of the Kindle

(Image borrowed from here)

A few weeks ago I walked into my usual Chinese place for lunch and the proprietor immediately inquired: Where's your book?  She's seen me walk in every week for the last six years and get comfortable with a book while waiting on my order. I hadn't brought one for the same reason that when I went on vacation, I decided to not carry any books as part of my pack-light-and-avoid-checking-bags policy.  I had my Kindle in my carry on bag, and as I stood in the Chinese restaurant, I carried a small library in my pocket -- my phone, equipped with the Kindle app.

Seven years ago I did a worried  thinking-out-loud post called "Go Go Gadget Literature?" on e-books and e-readers, detailing my concerns about electronic readers. Five years later, I sheepishly revealed that I'd recently purchased a Kindle fire, mostly to use as a tablet, and had been dabbling with reading books online. I called that one "You Still Can't Call Me Inspector Gadget".  I'd become interested in a few titles which were online-only, partially because of NetGalley.  Things have changed, however. I just did a tally, and approximately 41 books from last year were read via my Kindle. That's less than a third, but seven months into 2018, e-books account for nearly half of my reading. That's quite a sea change, and one prompted by frequent sales of Kindle books, the relative paucity of nonfiction in my area (I have to drive an hour and a half to a library with enough nonfiction to keep me busy), and my growing ease with android and iphone systems. Seven years ago I had never touched a smartphone; now people hand their devices to me and ask for help  -- which is how I learned to use them to begin with.

It's not that I've stopped liking physical books, far from it: they fill my rooms and are scattered around my car. I'm still buying them,  cruising Amazon on a daily basis looking for interesting old or new titles  to be had for cheap . But my space is limited,  the Kindle offers me frequent  steals, and in the three years I've had it, I've yet to drop or damage my device, or suffer a book being deleted mysteriously by Amazon. I paid a $15 premium on mine at the time to avoid seeing any splash advertisements on the wake screen, so all of my  original objections have never applied.

Ironically, as my work has made me both comfortable and experienced with smartphones and related devices,  I've grown to appreciate my Kindle Fire less as a tablet (which is why I originally bought it!).  Kindles use a modified version of Android that is divorced from the Google play store, so a lot of Android-compatible content isn't available.  My particular Kindle model also doesn't have any way to expand its memory, so it may be good that its app library is limited.  Earlier in the year I purchased a 2016 flagship smartphone, principally as a camera but equipped with a 64 GB microSD card for photographs and such. Surprisingly, it's taken over as my e-reader of choice, so that despite my considerable use of Kindle as a software platform, my Kindle device itself has been relegated to marginal use, not being touched for weeks at a time.

Has the use of a Kindle changed me as a reader? Am  I more distracted, less focused?  I honestly don't think so.   I realize this is subjective, but I think I behave the same way while reading a book on my phone as I do reading a real one.  I don't stop reading mid-page to check notifications,  both out of deliberate choice (I ignore the itch to check email) and because I've arranged things so I won't be distracted. I turn do not disturb mode on, for instance, as I despise notifications and disable them at every opportunity, whether I'm using my phone or my computer.

It may be too early to speculate, but I think my e-reading activity has leveled off,  My phone has had a few months to do its magic, and while I definitely use it more than my old emergency-use  cellphone (which was usually lost, or dead, and only rarely on my person), I still haven't become a tech-zombie, shuffling around in public and staring downwards. My phone stays in my pocket until I decide it's time to read, or time to practice Spanish, or when I need to make a call. (This is rare, as I don't like phone calls and keep my phone on mute)  I've 'assimilated' my phone without becoming a drone myself. So...resistance isn't futile, so long as you're a crank to begin with.