Kindle Takeover

In my Mobile Media Management course a few weeks ago, I was the only one in the classroom who did not own a tablet. Many were shocked to discover this, but they also did not know about my lifelong obsession with books, and my dream of someday having my own library in my house. How am I going to build my library collection with all electronic books? I wouldn't be able to, so I've kept on buying physical books (and, for the record, so do many girls in my book club, so I know I'm not alone).

But I do love change. And technology. So it is sort of absurd I do not have a tablet, I will agree.

With Amazon's recent announcement about Amazon Source, a program that allows Kindle's to be sold  in bookstores, I am starting to wonder if the death of the indie bookstore will come sooner in my life than I expected... and maybe it's time to get a tablet and start living in 2013 (almost 2014).

Not having a tablet is sort of a choice (and sort of because I pay expensive NYU grad school tuition). I have a MacBook Air, which is super light so I have no problem carrying it with me wherever I go,  I have an iPhone for staying connected on the go, and the used books I buy on Amazon are cheaper than the tablet versions.

Also, I'm sort of overwhelmed about the choices. I love Apple products, so the iPad seems like a great choice, but at heart I am a book lover and the Kindle Fire seems to be calling my name. Instead of choosing, I just don't choose and therefore, am tablet-less.

I have a ridiculous fear that a tablet reader will for some reason not provide me the same joy as a physical book. For me, reading has always been my escape. I understood what it was like to have sisters by reading one of my all time favorites, Little Women. I got an insider peek at what it was like to be married to one of the most hated American Presidents through Laura Bush's Memoir, and what it was like to be a teenager and having an affair with one of America's most popular Presidents, JFK. I fell in love with old New York through Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence and my fear is that for some strange reason, the experience on a tablet will not be the same.

Call me crazy. I know this is ridiculous. I see a tablet in my future. I will let you know how it goes.