The Reading Spree: First Time on Kindle

My experiments with Kindle began when a friend, Rajitha, suggested all its merits. Thus, I decided on giving it a try considering I had one lying around. But being too old fashioned, I never tried it out.

So I looked about the house to find where this device was hidden and then dedicated June to reading on Kindle.

I must say I am still a sucker for normal, actual books. The feel, the smell and even the action of turning a page was much missed.

But yeah, I must reluctantly admit, Kindle is definitely convenient and light. I see its merits as my dear friend suggested. I have already stored so many books to read on them! My TBR list just got a digital revamp! Sigh! Oh the list is positively infinite now!

The best thing is that I found many Japanese and Korean translations in mobi format. This was what eventually convinced me to give Kindle a try since otherwise these translations are pretty expensive to get as paperbacks!

So the three books I read on Kindle were:

We Of The Forsaken World by Kiran Bhat: I got this free copy from Book Sirens. It was not the best of reads but engaging enough with its world building and interconnecting narratives. The book comments on the many environmental problems of the world through its different interlinked stories.
Munnu: A Boy From Kashmir by Malik Sajad: Set in Kashmir, this graphic novel is about the titular character’s coming of age, how he became a cartoonist and a graphic novelist. This graphic novel evokes the style of Maus by Art Spiegelman because in it the Kashmiris are depicted as the endangered species, hangul deer, just as in Maus, Jews are depicted as mice.
Sajad’s novel is a beautiful one that weaves the state’s history and art into its narrative.
Where The Wild Ladies Are by Matsuda Aoko: This was the reason I took to reading on Kindle so it was obvious I would read a Japanese translated novel on the device. And what a fun choice I made! For over two years, I have been interested in reading retelling of traditional stories and Where The Wild Ladies Are was a complete package. All its short stories put a modern, 21st century twist to Japanese legends and stories, particularly its ghosts and gives the female characters the centre stage.

My two other grouses with Kindle is that of course we can’t take a picture of a pile of books together and that it does not have colour! Its like I am living in the 1950s! 😛

This month in July, I am turning to the old fashioned books again. I am saturated with being online, in front of a device and do not want to add another device in my life right now where entire lives seem to have moved online!

So this month, the theme I picked is reading something closer home: South Asian fiction.

Stay tuned end of the month to find out the books I picked for this month!

3 thoughts on “The Reading Spree: First Time on Kindle”

Though I too read e-books and have even published my own e-books, I love the print more than anything just because we can turn back and forth and cross-check, clarify, study, which is not easy with the digital version. Moreover, the digital book doesn’t feel like a book.

Aakanksha

July 12, 2020 at 8:01 pm

Yes, i absolutely agree. I missed taking notes and also just being able to easily flip through the book to check on something you read. I mean I can do that on Kindle but still it is difficult.

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