Sunday, March 22, 2009

Kindle the Devine Intervention

I've never been an avid reader. My wife though over compensates for me. She went to India last oct and has been missing the public libraries and the joy of reading. She could finish 6 books a week and still have time on her hands. All that changed once she moved back. We do have Crossroads right across from our house in Mumbai and she goes there every now and then to buy books. Yet she maintains that the collection is not as wide as she wants.

When I visited her in Feb, I gifted her an ipod touch and tried to show her eReader/Stanza (ebook readers for ipod touch) but could not get her interested in reading on an electronic device. A few weeks later, "The curious case of Benjamin Button" came to PVR and she loved the movie. She wanted to read the book and fortunately it was available under free books on Stanza. I showed how to download it and slowly her resistance dissolved.

Last week I read that Kindle is now available for iphone and itouch. Yesterday, we sat together (on skype) to set it up. She had seen seen revolutionary road last week and loved it so much that she badly wanted to read the book. Crossroads did not have it and it was available as ebook on Amazon for $9. It took us all but 10 minutes to set up Kindle, buy the book and download it on her kindle. By the time we were done she was as excited as our 4 years old when watching Chota Bheem.

Technology is shaping our lives in so many ways. This is just one of the things but it makes her feel she need not be in us to be able to enjoy the best books. I'm just happy to see her happy. If I could, I'd wind up everything and go back home tomorrow.

2 comments:

Shalini said...

Lol, very nice post. Yes, I am an old-school reader too. Love the physical touch of a book and the permanence of it. Just like photo albums of old times...so much nicer than going through a slide show of photos on the computer.

Adorable Bad Guy said...

True! There is a sense of romance when reading the paper back. The touch, feel, the smell of newly printed and yet unopened book. Paperback still remains the most preferred way of reading with both of us.