I have journeyed . . .

. . . to the dark side and done what I swore I would not do! I have purchased - gasp, double gasp, triple gasp, cough, cough, cough - a Kindle.

Okay, the lightning bolt hasn't hit me yet, so perhaps the literary gods don't mind my purchase of the Kindle. Then again, the literary gods have been known for their drama queen moments before . . .

Why did I purchase a Kindle after I swore that I would not? Money, people, it all boils down to money. I love to read. I love the feel of a book in my hands, the touch and smell of the pages. I've bought a book or two based on the texture of the page. Yeah, I'm weird at times. Did I mention I prefer hardback books? Yes, my downfall in life is that I prefer the more expensive hardback books to paperbacks. That, dear readers, is why I have gone over to the dark side - Luke, I'm your father - and purchased a Kindle. I can save a ton of money - well, not literally, but at least figuratively (those are literary terms for those not in the know) - per year by purchasing my books on the Kindle. To date, 2 books downloaded, I have saved $20. That's, like, four trips to Starbucks. Woo-hoo!

I love my Kindle. Let me count the ways:

1. For most books, I can download the first chapter (for free) and read it. If I like, I buy, if I don't like, I don't buy. Simple!
2. The Kindle automatically saves my place in the book. I no longer have to worry about accidentally (it has happened to me more times than I care to admit) shutting the book. With Kindle, turn it on, and voila there's where I stopped reading. Cool beans, dear readers, cool beans.
3. I can highlight passages and those highlights are saved in a separate folder. Woo-hoo! Now, I don't normally highlight passages in a book - personally, I believe it blasphemy to highlight or draw lines in a book (my normal mode is to write down the page # on a piece of paper and the paragraph #) - but every now and then I find a sentence or paragraph that I want to remember and cherish. Kindle makes life so much easier.

Okay, those are my top three reasons. There are a lot of other things as well, but I'm not going into depth on them . . . at least right now.

Last, I'll still buy the occasional hardback, especially since I have most of some series in hardback. There's no need to stop now. I don't want six books of a series in hardback, and the next three in electronic format. It just wouldn't do. I don't want to piss the literary gods off too much at one time. I'm just saying . . .

S