Yep, I’m going there. I, personally, have a Kindle Fire. I like it a great deal. Aside from the fact that it stores a crapton of books, I can get lots of cheap books for it, and it’s easy to carry around, I have discovered a new benefit to my Kindle over paper books.
My daughter takes swim lessons. I read while she does this. I usually bring my Kindle. Last week, I happened to be reading a paperback that I picked up from a fellow NIWA author at an event (spoiler alert, I’ll have a positive review on Friday this week). Thus, I had a paper book at an indoor swimming pool. Now that I think about this, it really does sound like a disaster waiting to happen. I suppose that just goes to show how much contemplation I put into the decision in the first place.
Everything went swimmingly (seal clap for me) until some lovely gentleman decided to wave his son’s goggles around to get the water out of them. Into my face. Thanks.
I got a nice, big fat splotch on one page of my book. As any good book nerd knows, you blot it with your shirt and then pretend it didn’t happen. Which I did. It’s a CreateSpace-crafted book, so the paper survived just fine, except for the ecru dust I created by absently rubbing it when I knew I wasn’t supposed to.
As it turns out, though, Kindles suffer no ill effects from a bit of water. You brush it off, and hey, it even cleans the screen! I’m not saying they’d survive falling into the pool any better than a book would. (If I had a free one stuffed into my hand, I might actually try that to see what happens, but I’m pretty sure the pool would win the battle.) I am, however, saying that when it comes to taking my daughter to swim lessons, or hitting the beach, or standing in the rain, the Kindle wins. Hands down. No contest.