Ebook Convert

People have talked about the Ebook replacing the standard printed work for decades. As an avid reader who has bookshelves stuffed full of paperbacks with the occasional hardback thrown in, I thought I'd never be willing to give up my trusty printed books. After all, who wants to curl up in bed with a laptop? I'm not a fan of reading large amounts of text off a computer screen, but like most, I check my facebook page and email several times a day and when I need to know who the members of the brat pack were, I turn to wikipedia, not encyclopedia britannica.

In spite of all of that, I never had much interest in the ebook. When the Kindle came out, I thought "that's kind of neat" but I kept buying my paperbacks instead. When you could download the kindle software for your laptop, pc and even iPhone, I downloaded it but never used it much. I just wasn't interested in trying to read a book on my tiny iPhone screen.

Then I got the iPad2. Suddenly I had a decent sized screen on a portable device much easier to lug around than my 13lb gaming laptop. So I gave in and purchased my first kindle book and downloaded it to my IPad. While it's still a bit awkward to try and read it while laying in bed, I instantly fell in love with the ability to hunt down a book I've been craving on Amazon and then immediately download it to my device and start reading. No more waiting several days for shipping and no more having to order books in batches so I can get the free "super saver" shipping. Not only that, but when I go on a trip, now I can take as many books as I want with me to read during those boring times in the hotel room when I'm not sleepy enough to go to bed, but it's too late to go looking for something to do.

I haven't thrown out all my paperbacks, but I do plan to slowly replace them with digital copies as time and money allows. In other words, this ebook skeptic has finally become a convert. I still enjoy cuddling up with my paperbacks and I still enjoy reading a real newspaper or magazine more than a website, but if I can get that newspaper or magazine on my iPad I will.

I hope with the growing popularity of ereaders that more publishers will create digital versions of their papers, magazines and books, rather than trying to do websites instead. There's just something about the format that is satisfying in a way that websites that attempt to do the same thing are not.

So for my fellow readers who have been on the fence about jumping on the ebook bandwagon. Give it a shot. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.