the printed word

I had a weird realization today. I was wandering around the house and reading (One of Ours, by Willa Cather) on my phone. Then I glanced over at our bookcases and saw all of my Cather novels and anthologies from college...including One of Ours. Why was I reading it on my phone?

I still love my Kindle, but I mostly use it for reading outside in the sun (it's perfect for the beach). The Kindle app on my phone, however, I use constantly. While it might look like I'm always texting/working on my phone like the other D.C. workaholics, I'm probably reading. I just realized that I've read ten books so far in 2013, and it's definitely because I always have my phone (and therefore books) with me. Positive.

That said, I felt kind of guilty when I thumbed through the printed book and saw college notes, quotes underlined, and pages folded over. I know there are tools to do all of those things on the Kindle, but the tactile version reminded me of the classmates I read the book with, my wise, quirky professors, the porch of my college house where I read it...all of the other sensory aspects that were now part of the story.

I'm not going to swear off technology and go resurrect the art of hand-written books in a monastery (wait.............no, never mind. I'm not.). I'm still going to wander around D.C. with my nose in my phone. But at home at least, I'll make sure I'm revisiting the originals.