A whole library in your hand
The high-profile Hachette debate, the sockpuppet saga and many other issues have often caused authors and readers to damn all things Amazonian, including the Kindle. Ereaders as a whole are often criticised as the enemy of books, reading, libraries, culture, civilisation…
The more positive take on ereaders is less often told: that those with certain medical conditions are grateful to Amazon and other ereader suppliers for making reading possible and an affordable part of everyday life. From the author's perspective, ereaders enable them to reach readers that might otherwise have been unreachable.
I therefore gave an inward cheer when I read a heartfelt rallying cry on the ALLi private Facebook forum the other day from indie author and playwright Pelham McMahon, which, with her permission, I'm sharing below.
“Thank goodness for Kindle, the library in my pocket. Much as I love the feel, the smell, the look of paper-based literature, age has deprived me of the ability to handle large tomes easily. A case in point, I recently purchased and read An Intimate War by Mike Martin. I paid for the hardback version as I believe it to be a marvel of research, a thesis beyond compare, and that it should be available in the library of every university and military academy. I am proud to display it upon my own bookshelves. Its only faults: the weight of it (700gms) upon my arthritic hands and the static size of the font to my increasingly poor eyesight. This is where the Kindle wins everytime. I love my Kindle because it is a whole library and still weighs less than my recently published paperback.
“The ereader is also a life-saver to the disabled, offering a free service for the classics for those who are bed bound or housebound, and those who rely upon
large print.”
I too love print books, which line the walls of my house, but I'm another reader who can only read as much as I do because of my ereader. I never have to set my Kindle down to rest my aching hands or wrists, and I really don't care that it doesn't look as pretty as my print books. Though I don't currently need the large print facility, there may well come a time when I'm glad for that too. I'll never forget how grateful an elderly, sight-impaired neighbour was when, years ago, I started bringing her regular large-print books from the library: they brought joy and interest and excitement to her endless housebound days. Ebooks and ereaders are here to stay, and very glad I am about it.
Note As the BBC likes to say: other ereaders are available!)
Find out more about Pelham MacMahon and her work via her website: www.pelhammcmahon.co.uk.
OVER TO YOU
Ereaders – love 'em or loathe 'em? Join the conversation via the comments page!
EASY TWEET
“#Authors: how #ereaders help you reach “unreachable” readers – by @DebbieYoungBN via @IndieAuthorALLi: https://selfpublishingadvice.org/ereaders/”
