(Now that I re-read this, I wonder if I wrote about this before. If I did, well, sorry.)

A few years back, Amazon was having one of those Black Friday deals on a kids’ Kindle (Paperwhite), with fun case and 1-year subscription to Kindle Kids. It’s the same Kindle as the non-kid versions, just with a bonus fun cover. I mean, who wouldn’t want a fun cover? And a Black Friday deal?

I got it for myself thinking that it would help me read more, because I want to read more. I didn’t realize it would become the means to at least half of my reading.

I don’t love reading on a screen, even a Kindle screen which is easier to read from than most. But just the ease of always having the book there, it being small, thin, and able to be wiped off, means I read in more situations. I can read while I eat, including eating messy foods that I wouldn’t let a paper book near. I can more easily save excerpts from the book when there is something special to quote. And I can get so, so, SO many free books through my library system. Plus our Amazon Prime subscription gets me another free book (or sometimes two) every month. Oh, and I can change the type size, which is becoming more and more useful as I get older.

I can’t make it sepia toned like I can in the Kindle app on my iPhone and iPad, but I can switch back and forth and read on whatever device I happen to have. But the Kindle is easier to read on than my tiny iPhone SE 2, and a lot lighter and less expensive than my iPad.

I’ll rarely actually spend money on an ebook, though; any books I want to keep I buy a physical copy of. Except I did pay 99 cents once for an ebook of the complete works of Jane Austen because that makes it easy to search the book for specific lines, searching all her works at once.

In the end, I didn’t love introducing another device into my life, but my Kindle is helping me read more. Which is always a good thing.

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