My Kindle seems to have come over all Soviet Tower Block; uninformative, depressing, slate grey, threatening to dictate my reading. What ever happened to the colourful pile of new books on my bedside table?
Twenty-five (at least) books to read on my Kindle. What to choose next? I am presented with a list of fairly meaningless titles (almost) and authors who are unfamiliar. What I need is book covers and blurb to entice me. My Kindle home page looks like a university reading list, lacking in colour and detail, or the outline programme of a dull literary conference. Perhaps this is an argument for the iPad?
But there are some familiar titles on my Kindle list - Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, Tender is the Night. I have just re-read The Great Gatsby on the Kindle, for about the tenth time in my life - one of the great novels of the Twentieth Century. I remember the cover of the Penguin Modern Classic, I remember the smell of it, I remember the first time I read it.
The new titles on the Kindle don't sing to me. Will I remember the day I first read them? Doubt it. But here's the joy of the Kindle and the contradiction; I can carry with me all those classic books I have read in the past and the memories that go with them.
What of the new?
I think I need to read great books in paper format first time round. Now here's an idea (Probably not new). All books should be published in paper and be sold with a digital download for additional £1.00. (80p going to the author).
Then I can carry the moment forever on my Kindle
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