There’s been a book in my hand since I was first able to comprehend words on paper. I’d tear through shelves like wildfire, and librarians all over town loved to see me coming. I couldn’t get enough — of the stories and shelf space in my bedroom.

While I’ll always be a collector of hardcovers and special editions, there’s no denying that

e-readers
revolutionized my reading habits all the way back in 2009. Digital books were cheaper, and didn’t take up any physical real estate — sorry if I cheated you out of a fun DIY shelving project, Dad.

Kindle kicked it off strong with Amazon’s solid foundation beneath it, but 18 years since the first one was released, other strong contenders — like

Kobo
and

Boox
— have risen to challenge its authority. While they do make a strong case in their own rights, I’m a decided Kindle loyalist.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2024)

$130 $160 Save
$30

Brand

Amazon

Screen

7-inch E-ink, 300ppi, 16-level gray scale

Storage

16GB

Connectivity

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi

Battery

up to 12 weeks

Weight

7.4 oz (211g)

Expand

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1

The Amazon ecosystem

Stockholm Syndrome and the walled garden

Amazon / Pocket-lint

Yes, my family’s Amazon account has been active since 1999, and yes, that means I was actually born into the convenience of the internet’s biggest retailer. Amazon is intuitive, and it always has been, even in the clunkier era of online shopping.

Before Amazon truly sunk its claws into the rest of the world with Prime and its two-day free shipping, I already had its branded boxes arriving on my porch for years. My family was busy — with an abundance of siblings and activities to ferry us off to, getting the everyday items delivered all at once was an easy way to eliminate a few errands.

That convenience was palpable to me, especially when my summers were dedicated to staying up till sunrise to read ‘just one more chapter.’ If you finish the biggest cliffhanger of your childhood at 3AM — when Barnes and Noble isn’t open, and no one is awake to drive you there anyway — what could be better than spending a few bucks to get the next installment in front of your eyes immediately? Back when the site rolled out its ‘buy with one click’ button, it was absolutely over for everyone (most specifically, my wallet). All of my allowance money went towards stacking the new digital shelves of the Kindle I shared with my sisters.

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2

Acquired inventory

Like a dragon with its hoard

Angga Yafi / Susannah Townsend / Pocket-lint

As of right now, there are over 408 items, not even counting the constant revolving door of all our respective Libby app borrows and Kindle Unlimited titles, associated with my Amazon account. While my own taste has shifted over the years, it’s nostalgic to go back and browse the titles that I grew up adoring.

My siblings have their own contributions too that I can peruse — just like a public library — if I ever want to try something new. Self-help books aren’t my thing, but my sister has an abundance to choose from in our little family library if I ever have a change of heart.

It might not be the Beauty and the Beast library of my dreams, but it’s rich and limitless in my tote bag. What more could a girl ask for?

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3

Simplicity

Reading is reading

There is a darkness to single-use technology, I admit. E-waste is a problem that will plague generations to come unless we become more mindful with our devices and how we dispose of them. However, Kindles are my vice — I’ve only ever owned two myself in the 18 years since they’ve been out, and my newest one was the

brand-new Kindle Paperwhite
that only came out last year. The first one still works absolutely perfectly, and it made a fantastic and fully-functioning gift for someone close to me once I had the new model.

Reading is reading — as my eyes devour words on a page, I’m not obsessing over the medium I’m reading it on. Rather, I’m visualizing a great battle in Narnia, picking apart details of a Victorian parlor room, or searching for patterns and connections the author cleverly hid between her lines. I am not worrying about anything else so long as the screen isn’t preventing me from getting through the chapter, which has never happened in my entire experience as a Kindle user.

Unlike cinephiles and gamers, who do have to worry about FPS and screen quality, I want a device that feels the most like a book without lugging around an 800-page hardcover. Kindle accomplishes this perfectly. Plus, how cute is that name? Kindles are the kindling that fuel my imagination, to put it poetically. With a name like that — which is certainly no basis for an argument, but a point I’ll make anyways — who wouldn’t choose that one?