What I'm Reading Wednesday: How Do You Read?

Not as in "how" does one navigate the cognitive process of transcribing symbols into ideas, but rather, what format do you use to read?

Cuz, in this day and age, we gotz choices!

Admittedly, when e-readers first began to emerge, I was a hater.

Because not only do I love to read, but I also LOVE books.  I just love them.  I love the look of them, I love the way their spines neatly line up on a book shelf, I love the smell of their glue, I love the feeling of turning a page, and I love the places where you can browse books: bookstores and libraries.  Perhaps it's this last aspect that I love most of all -- partially because I have such fond memories of them from childhood.

My mother was a librarian at our small town's local library for a big chunk of my childhood, and every day after school, I walked to the library and spent my afternoon there as she finished her work day.  I read or did homework in the bean bags situated in the kid section, or I often helped my mom shelve books (yes, I was an 8 year old who knew the Dewey Decimal system).  I loved the library and all the books in it.

Equally, I loved the bookstore.  In particular, when we were with my dad, every other weekend, he regularly took my brother and I to do one of 3 things: Go to the zoo, go to the natural history museum, or go to The Tattered Cover (a beloved independent bookstore in Denver).  The Tattered Cover was (and still is, although they're not in their original location now) a Wonderland of books.  4 stories of wall-to-wall books.  Certainly, I also benefited from my dad's weak spot for book buying, and my brother and I always got to walk away from the store with a new read to add to our personal libraries.

So, winding back to the emergence of e-readers, I couldn't fathom that they would ever appeal to me because I felt I'd be robbed of something integral to my reading experience.  But, I was wrong.

Because something else happened: My own kids.

Kids, in case you don't know, come with a lot of stuff.  We live in a small home where space, especially storage space, is in short supply.  Thus, in order to make room for their stuff, I had to get rid of some of my stuff, and you know what takes up a massive amount of space?  Books.

Simply put, e-readers solve the problem of accumulating more STUFF.  And, once I began reading in this way, I also began to love the ease and convenience of e-reading.  If, for example, I finish a book late at night and want to buy and start a new one, it's a matter of minutes and I have a new read at my finger tips.  Plus, they are (slightly) cheaper.  So, now I often read on either the iPad, or even on my iPhone -- tiny screen, but it's incredibly convenient -- or on the Kindle or Nook.  Yes, we own them all.  We are reading gluttons.  But, that doesn't mean I have completely abandoned the classic book book.

In fact, the two principle drawbacks of e-reading (browsing isn't the same, enjoyable experience and lending is harder) still make physical books advantageous.  Plus, every now and then I like holding something tangible.  Something I can flip to the end of a chapter or the end of the book and give myself a sneak peek (bad habit?  honestly, knowing the ending ruins nothing for me) and something that gives the reading some heft.

So, essentially, I read in just about every available format, and the one thing e-readers helped me re-confirm is that I don't just love books.  I love reading.

How do you read?  Do you own an e-reader; if so, which one?  What do you think are the advantages/disadvantages of reading in different formats?