When my husband surprised me with a Kindle for Christmas four years ago, I wasn’t sure that I’d like it. I enjoy holding a book in my hands, examining the color cover, and feeling the pages glide between my fingers. But, grateful for his thoughtful gift, I tested it out. And I became hooked. Here’s what I love about my Kindle.

1. The dictionary feature. I love the ability to look up a word with a single tap. I don’t need to set my book down and go for the dictionary–either in hardcover or online. It’s  undoubtedly helped expand my vocabulary and enabled me to grasp the precise meaning of words.
2. The ability to prop it on a window sill. I carefully prop my Kindle on the window sill above the kitchen sink, which allows me to read while washing dishes. With six people, no automatic dishwasher, and  meals cooked from scratch, I often have a double sink filled with dishes. Reading makes the task more pleasant.
3. Hands-free reading. The Kindle has allowed me to read while performing tasks such as folding laundry or sometimes nursing an infant. Since I only need a surface to rest it on and an occasional free finger to tap, I don’t have to worry about holding the book open to my page.
4. Highlighting and making notes without permanently marking the book. I don’t mark in my books. Period. Maybe I did with college textbooks that were going nowhere when I finished with them, but as a rule, I like my books clean. With the Kindle, I can mark it up without altering the text’s appearance and delete notes at any time.
5. Reading in the dark. My Paperwhite is backlit, so when the room is dim because other family members are watching a movie, I’m outside after the sun has set, or I’m lying on the bed waiting for a child to fall asleep, I can read without fumbling with a book light.
6. The search feature. Rather than flipping pages, I can find a scene or a sentence quickly simply by searching. Big time saver.
7.  Sales and freebies. The amount of books I read has increased exponentially because of the numerous quality discounted and free books available on Kindle. We simply did not have a budget that would have allowed me to purchase those books at full price.
8.  Space saver. We have a small home and a big book habit. Not a good combination. Books fill numerous shelves in our home as well as boxes in the attic. There’s simply no more space for them, and I really don’t want more “stuff.” Space is no issue with Kindle storage on the device and in the cloud.
9. Create portable documents without printing. Rather than say, repeatedly printing out my 200-plus page manuscript, I can send it to my Kindle for ease in reading. It also saves money in printing costs or ink cartridges.
10. Portability. So slim, I can easily slip it in my purse or in the minivan so that I can sneak in a few pages here and there without worrying about damaging a library book or being weighed down.

Do you own a Kindle or other e-reader? What do you like about it? What don’t you like about it? Do you read hard- and soft-cover books as well?

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