Kindled by 'kindle'?

When I was doing my masters in London, in 2012, talks on 'Kindle' was there all around me. Most liked it. Many similar devices were introduced in the market, and were always compared with kindle. But for me, though the technology attracted me, I kind of became averse to the device for no reason. And in defence, I would use the haptic and simple but sophisticated attributes of ipad, the only Apple product that I truly like.

But now in 2014, talks on kindle have again barged into my life, through my new office. Being a research based firm, anything that is handy and portable, which lets you read your research papers and books, is grabbed. And by chance, I get asked to read a book from one of the office kindles, for the book I had to read was not available in hard copy at my office. But, the kindle, reciprocating with its own aversion for me, makes itself unavailable for me to read from it. So then, I was asked to buy the book in my Kindle 'app'. Excuse my ignorance. For, till then,  I never knew there existed a 'Kindle' app. For me, kindle was just that book reader device with small keyboard, with haptic gestures newly introduced (I think). So with this new found knowledge, finally the kindle kindled my excitement about its interface!

I ended up downloading the Kindle app and buying the new book. Being a bookaholic myself, I generally cannot contain my urge to open a new book and start reading a few pages before I go do any other work!  But oddly, that urge was not there in me, when I bought this book in Kindle. Is it because I had to read it from my laptop, which does not exactly share the experience when reading a book? May be. So, I shifted reading the book from my phone instead.

For a fact, I did love it! The concept that it was handy, and I can read it in auto or a bus, or anywhere on the move. And the most cool one - I can highlight text on my phone! and all my activities, including the page number I last visited, get synced with all the devices I have that app in!

Apps always rock, and Kindle app, though has more scope for improvement, is one of the good ones.

But the new found excitement didn't sustain. Somehow, ultimately, there is nothing like carrying a book in your bag, feeling the book on your hands, turning those pages, underlining/scribbling with pen/pencil on those hard pages, sticking a bookmark between those pages, or dogtailing them instead (Oops!).

So in the end, I had to get the hard copy, which, should I even say it? Of course I finished that book in no time!