I LOVE READING BOOKS on my Kindle. I like the convenience of having hundreds of books on hand, of being able to make searchable notes, and of being able to download new titles immediately. Above all, I love the fact that I can continue reading a book on my phone, because the Kindle app knows where I left off.
Reading lengthy texts on my iPhone took a while to get used to. I started with short stories, then decided I’d try a full novel. The novel I tried was Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. And it’s a fabulous book. So fabulous that I thought it would be good to read the original, so I shelled out for a first edition (it was less expensive than I’d anticipated).
But when the book arrived, I was dismayed to find that reading it on paper was significantly more difficult than reading it on my iPhone. The text is so small and very tightly spaced that reading it is a strain. So I went back to my iPhone, and finished it there.
I still have Our Mutual Friend on my bookshelf, but I doubt I’ll every try to read it again in that format.
