Earlier this week I posted about the new case I ineptly knit for my Amazon Kindle. Then I read a post on my book club Facebook group, where another member recommended we try a book on Chapters’ Heather’s Pick list. Apparently if you buy a Heather’s Pick and don’t like it, you can return it. Great! But I never buy physical books. I love my Kindle.

There was an article in a local paper last year about the birth of the electronic book and the death of the physical book. I’m a bit too lazy to dig up the original article, but the gist of it was that the physical book will never die because, in the omniscient opinion of the writer, real readers like the smell and feel of actual books.

Well, I went to the paper’s website to disagree and take some offence, and saw that, of course, lots of people wholeheartedly agreed, and then the commenting was incompatible with my browser and I kind of forgot about the whole thing. Until now.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I like books. If I see a beautifully bound book at my local Chapters, there’s a chance I will buy it. I’m currently coveting this edition of The Great Gatsby:

Books are cool. But…the part of me that likes trees thinks that books are a bit wasteful. So does the part of me that is tired of being weighed down with so much stuff. And I love being able to prop my Kindle up on my knees and lazily turn pages with just the push of a button. I don’t have to hold a book open!! It’s awesome! Oh, and it fits nicely in my purse. And if I forget it, I can pull up the app on my phone. And last July, I finished my book while sitting on the beach and 30 seconds later I’d downloaded a new one. And with my waterproof case, I can read in the bath without worrying about soaking a book or otherwise destroying it.

I get it – my husband, who bought me the Kindle, loves having physical books. He’s a bigger fan of things than I am. But between the two of us, I’m unarguably the reader. I read a lot I read for hours daily. So I thought the article’s blanket statement that the title “book lover” is so literal.

Kindles, Kobos and eReaders are awesome and I think everyone should have one.

Our over-stuffed book shelf.