I was watching TV when a stop-motion animation commercial came on. A girl was doing all these amazing things in cute costumes, and I wondered, "What's this commercial for?"
And then I found out.
Kindle. And I say that the way I would say the name of a dreaded enemy before we face off and fight to the death in an epic movie.
I don't like this invention in any of its forms, be it the reading feature on the iPad, the Barnes & Noble Nook, or the Amazon Kindle. A book is defined as "a written or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers." All in all I found 14 definitions, and none were anything like "a pretentious little screen trying to store books like music."
Some have called my hatred of the Kindle "extreme." My dad claims it's the way of the future, that someday all books will be digitized and mine will be obsolete antiques on a shelf.
Over my dead body.
There is an aesthetic satisfaction in books that cannot be attained by reading words off a screen. You can heft a book in your hand and feel the weight. You can feel the textural change from the rough cross-hatch of the binding to the smooth creaminess of the cover paper. Best of all, you can stick your nose down in clear to the spine and smell the new book smell.
Not to mention that in books, one can write happy messages to the receivers. In my copy of "Gone With the Wind," there is a note from my dad, who got it for me. I remember being with him and hardly waiting until we were back in the truck to start reading "Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but ..."
I love reading for its own sake, but books themselves also have priceless memories. So while the Kindle is technologically advanced and convenient, I will never own one. It's just not as meaningful as a good, old-fashioned book.
Lindsey Larson is a recent graduate of Roy High School. E-mail her at chocolate.anonymous.19@hotmail.com.
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