I'm a reader. I've read tons of novels and non-fiction books in my lifetime.
At forty-seven, I have more than three thousand "dead tree books" in my personal library.
And I am on the verge of never reading another new "dead tree book".
Join me after the jump to find out why.
I will be purchasing a Kindle this week. Yeah, lots of people will hate the fact that I am bowing to the almighty corporation of Amazon, but I've been researching this for years now and am ready to make the jump. I am going to the Kindle over price, available library, and market share.
I don't make this move lightly, but eBooks are better for the environment than dead tree books.
I won't stop purchasing new dead tree books, but my purchasing habits are about to be greatly curtailed.
I have been entering books that I want in eBook format into a wishlist on Amazon I have named "Kindle".
In two days I have already put together a list of over 350 pieces of fiction, most of which already exist in my current library.
I know that over the next few years, I will end up with more than 1000 titles in the Kindle I will be purchasing within the next week.
Why?
The Kindle utilizes so little electricity that putting my library in an eBook format means I have security (Amazon will always know what books I have) while minimizing my carbon footprint to have these books.
Furthermore, my wife and I will both have Kindles on the same account, so we will share all books with each other.
I am willing to pay a bit more for a book than the soft cover costs to be more eco-friendly in my reading, but most eBooks are cheaper than their soft cover counterparts. New books in eBook format are usually considerably cheaper than their hard cover brethren.
Now there are certain authors whom I consider beloved. As an example, R. A. Salvatore is one of my favorite authors and I have nearly everything he has written in my Kindle wish list. I also have most of this in my dead tree book library. The reason I am willing to purchase the collection again in eBook format is for the convenience factor. It's easier to read an eBook than to read an anthology of three novels.
I'll even go so far as to admit I will be willing to pat $14.99 for a new eBook and another $25.99 for the hard cover for certain authors. I'll never read the dead tree version as it will only be for obtaining a signature and adding it to my collection of thousands of dead tree books.
But there's another side to this.
I'll be incredibly open to purchasing that $2.99 novel that is only available in eBook format from a new author that isn't established than I will be to purchase a $6.99 eBook from an established author I have never read.
I am going to be more willing to give a new author a chance than to give an established author whom I've never read a chance, all because the new format drives the economics in that direction.
Overall, I love the idea and hope that before I die I go at least five years with never purchasing a single dead tree book, yet still reading my average of at least 250 books over that five years.