I will never . . .

Back in the early 1990s, when cell phones were becoming more common and they only had enough juice to last for maybe half an hour of use at a time, I said:

"I will never own a cell phone. I already answer the phone at home all day long. Why would I want people to be able to reach me when I'm out?"

I meant it.

But then the safety issue was brought home to me. If something happened to my car on the freeway, for instance, I didn’t want to open my car to a total stranger. Much better to be able to call AAA or even the police.

I can’t tell you how many different mobile phones I’ve owned since I got my first one (a Motorola). It was small but weighty. Maybe you’re old enough to remember the antennas that you had to pull up before answering or making a call.

Now I use an iPhone that is basically a small computer in my hand and the battery lasts me all day. My, how times have changed.

Jump forward about a decade, as ebooks and ebook readers were becoming a reality. I knew a writer back then who read ebooks on her laptop while she knitted. I remember saying:

 "I will never read like that. Why would I when I can hold a book in my hands?"

Well, I got my first Kindle in either late 2007 or early 2008. Its purpose was solely to proof my manuscripts on. I still wasn’t going to read other authors’ books on it.

Wrong.

The beauty of an e-reader is the ability to hold 500 or 1000 or more books in your hand and have them only weigh 8 ounces. The beauty is taking a trip and always having enough books with you. The beauty is reading at night in bed without a nightlight. The beauty of the models that aren’t actually tablets is there is no backlighting, blue light, or glare. The beauty is being able to increase the font size to make life easier on tired and/or old eyes. And there is a huge benefit when a person downsizes her living space and she no longer has enough bookshelves (been there, experienced that).

Yes, I have owned multiple models of the Kindle over the past 13 or 14 years, and yes, I do the vast majority of my reading on the device. My weak wrists and my eyes both appreciate it.

So be careful about saying, “I will never …” Sometimes a person has to eat those words.

For those of you who do not want to read books on a Kindle, Nook, Kobo, or another e-reader device or app, I’m delighted to share that the above books are all now available in paperback versions.

In the “old days” of publishing (when all books were purchased in bookstores or in racks at the grocery store or airport, etc.), most books had a life expectancy of about six to eight weeks. Unless a book was a breakout bestseller, it got replaced in the next publishing cycle. There just wasn’t room for stores to keep “older” books in stock. And they were rarely reissued. In fact, they were rarely returned to the publisher. When I was on a book tour in about 1993 or so, signing stock in warehouses, I saw paperback books whose six to eight weeks were up being burned to help heat the warehouses. {{shudder}}

Authors and publishers now have ways to affordably keep books available to readers for longer than six to eight weeks. In fact, they can be available for years and years. E-books and print-on-demand have made that possible.

If you’re interested in any of the above (or other) of my books in paperback editions, just click on Books in the menu to find the one you want.

~robin