Why I have not bought a Kindle

I love Kindle — I’ve used it (far) more than hard copy this year — but what I don’t need is another device.

I use this: Kindle download for PC. It does the job; just like Kindle it’s a boring little screen but if you poke it, a book pops up. The font size is flexible, as is the line length and background (white, sepia, or black) — so it’s legible. Plus it’s free, and the books are usually cheaper than paperbacks.

I use it to read:

• books I need to research for work/writing,
• free stuff,
• friends’ books that I want to review while I am waiting for hard copy,
• anthologies containing my stories,
• books that I don’t expect to like.

If I’m out and about, I have Kindle for Android all set up and the books downloaded to my PC are synchronised — ready and waiting for me to pick up where I left off.

But when the PC’s off and the phone’s on charge — when I’m not at work but reading just for fun — I use hard copy. (‘Paper’ in olde speak.)

Paper copies, for me, will always be essential; when chilling out, I read

• in the bath,
• on the beach,
• on clifftops,
• with my kids (one of whom is teething),
• and while feeding the baby late at night.

Unlike your bendy-flexy, bouncy, radiator-drying, dog-proof, sand-proof, suncream absorbent, squish-resistant, five-quid-a-pop paperback, A Kindle, a real-life Kindle, doesn’t stand a chance with us. The only way it could feasibly escape being drowned, buried, flung, sucked, sat on, squashed or otherwise broken is if I managed to lose it first.

Which, of course, I would.