Wednesday, August 13, 2014

The books or the Kindle? – ElEspectador.com

kindle-books

I am of who collects books, pieces of paper, magazines, brochures, announcements, cards, letters, newspapers, envelopes, maps; rather, all printed things, keep up the tickets butts aircraft as souvenirs of places. I think the personal library reveal all at a person, they are a file of life of each and their moments. I like to see how everyone organize their books and I realized that this simple decision reveals much of his personality: by subject, author, alphabetically, editorials, grouped by moments that read, divided between those who still awaits read aside worthwhile and the other that does not, by size and thickness, language, etc. I enjoy the paper, the smell of an old book, objects that are adrift between the pages read, to reread and remember the time they were my company. I like to discover a phrase that touches my soul in the folded page, the annotations on paper, tea stains, go loins fingers and guess that book is about. I can not imagine a home without the presence of books. I do not trust people who do not have a home library.

how ended up with a Kindle is another story. The decision had to do with travel and the simple fact that one can only take with a certain limited amount of books. Are the readings or clothing and diving equipment, and it seemed more practical to reduce the dilemma to the books or the Kindle. I can not say one is better than another; so from now confess that the question will not be finished, and what is going to try to give my reasons why I gave you the chance to discover the Kindle, but love paper books; and disadvantages.

The first is more or less sketched and has to do with the books are heavy and difficult to transport. A basic Kindle, according to Amazon, weighs less than 6 ounces and is the size of a paperback book. That means you can carry in your hand luggage without problem. The apparatus further has an average memory to store more than a thousand titles. When someone could carry a thousand books in a suitcase?

The hardest part is choosing what to pack out. The decision essentially ends always subordinated weight and capacity. Sure, there are paperbacks and those were always my first choice. Then came the task of calculating the readings depending on the time duration of the journey, and choose them correctly according to the destination to which I directed and he was going to do. In the end, I wanted more I could not take more than five books for a trip that ended extending for months. Then came the saddest part of the story. After reading them no choice but to go on the road leaving because the suitcase was becoming heavier and there was no point taking up space with something that somehow had served their purpose. Melancholy appeared at the time of parting, for me these books should end up in my library and not in the hands of a stranger. Other times could be exchanged in the book stores that stood in the way, full of fiction novels, light readings, the “best seller” selling at airports. And when he could find a good book collector, had few offerings in Spanish and to be a good title had to always give more money and clear book one.

Here comes the second reason. With Kindle titles are stored in a personal library, although it is virtual is available every time and no one wants to think about exchanges, and everywhere be looking at what to read, or neglect. Unlike what I thought, the Kindle only need internet for downloads and literally seconds for the file (I will not call book) reach “home” of the reader. Thereafter one can read them without being connected to a network. The library of e-books, Amazon says, has about 600,000 titles, some are free (mostly classics), others are worth less than $ 5 and so on. Make searches from the reader is uncomfortable middle, for that I use the page directly. Readings are listed by categories such as art and photography, biographies and memoirs, history, humor and entertainment, education and teaching, literature and fiction, mystery and suspense, political and social sciences, religion and spirituality, etc., etc. And constantly have new offers and new, so there are to choose from. So far I’ve found the authors that interest me and many books that do not have access in Colombia.

What is not so good the Kindle is that the vast majority of the titles are in English . There is a choice of 86.766 in Spanish, but not yet really offer compared to what one would find in a bookstore. Very few developments are, especially when it relates to literature. I definitely would not recommend this medium to anyone who does not read English.

Among the things that worried me was the theme of the display and readability of texts. Well I have to say that the technology used makes you feel like reading a paper with the same nuances without the brightness of the normal screens. The basic version of the Kindle, for example, has no light. The screen can be touched without leaving fingerprints and is easy to read in bright sunlight with no glare. In terms of readability, it is not the same as a book, of course, and takes some getting used. It is more like reading a PDF document, you can change fonts and sizes too and even spacing distance. The pages are passed by pushing a button, you can go to and fro as you want to; and at the bottom of the screen there is a line that indicates what percentage of the file has been traveled.

For those who like to make notes as you read, there is the option and can also emphasize prayer. Notes and highlights are saved in a separate document and is searchable with keywords. As the “search” in a Word file. Annotations can be shared with friends and on social networks, if you will. The device also serves to surf the internet and has a built in dictionary that can be used interactively while reading.

I think the Kindle is not for everyone or for every moment. You get used to using it, and it is practical, lightweight, smart and gives you access to thousands of titles with just one click; but it is not a book, or not as we knew it before

Photo:. www.publiclibraries.com

PenaCamila
www.camilapenajournalist.com

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