Whenever I show my Kindle to people, I inevitably get a few “oohs” and “aaahs” as they flip the unit around in their hands and try to use it as if it were a laptop or a touchscreen smartphone. They may bemoan the fact that there is no backlight which is EXACTLY what makes the Kindle so easy on the eyes; it doesn’t glow. They flip it around in their hands, lose my page in about 5 books and then hand it back to me with a conclusive “I prefer the feel of real paper.” Oh, OK. That totally sums it up. Thank you.

Here is what I have said in the past and want another chance to say it again. To the people who prefer the feel of real paper (as if I prefer the feel of plastic and electronics) I ask a simple question: Do you enjoy the sound of live music? Do you get excited when U2 is coming to your town or your local symphony orchestra will include a Mahler repertoire that you have been dying to hear? If they have answered yes to this question, then I simply ask them if this love of live music stops them in any way from purchasing a CD or an MP3 from ITunes. If it hasn’t, then why eschew a digital book because you prefer real paper?

Don’t get me wrong, I know the analogy is not precise. I understand that the commitment to attend a concert is typically greater than purchasing a novel. I own 300 CDs (I have a feeling I will have to explain what a CD is one day soon) and yet I have not seen 300 concerts in my life. A concert is much for of an event than picking a book off a shelf. Not to mention the cost differential. It costs about the same to purchase a digital book vs a “real” book but it usually costs substantially more to attend a concert than it does to order a song off Itunes.

But the point stays the same; The fact that I TOO prefer the feel of a paper book (as well as attending live concerts) should not prevent me from opportunities of the digital age. What are those advantages?

A. I currently have about 30 books on my Kindle and a subscription to the New Yorker (shamefully unread) all taking up the same physical space as a single paperback novel.
B. I will always be able to select a book based on mood. How many times have you had a book in your hand and thought to yourself that this was not the book you were “in the mood for?”
C. I can be completely spontaneous. If I want a book, I connect to the Kindle’s whispernet and shop Amazon.com and download a book in about 60 seconds. This is perfect if I am at the airport and pass a Borders and something catches my eye.
D. I own 1000 books and 95% of them I will never open again. Not EVERY book needs to exist beyond the timeframe in which I am reading them. Of course, there are many sentimental books that I want to have a hard copy of (ie collectibles, gifts, sentimental books, etc), but those are far and few between. I just finished a trashy corporate espionage novel. Why would I want to keep a copy of that book around?
E. I really can’t say which is “greener;” a Kindle or a paperback, but I can confidently state that a Kindle uses less paper…lol.
F. As a side benefit, I can easily use the Kindle on the treadmill at the gym. I can adjust the font size and not have to worry about how to hold the book or magazine open. This has helped me immensely with my motivation to run.

So there it is. My justification for welcoming and embracing the digital book age. If this means that publishing houses go out of business (not sure that it does), then so be it. Blacksmiths are also out of business too.

I can say that my work ethic (or my idealized work ethic that I have not yet realized), my passion for the extended family (my mom and dad live upstairs from us; my in-laws a mile away), my resourcefulness, my stubborn do-it-yourselfullness are all rooted in the role model that my mom and dad set for me.

In all that my family could offer me, they were never able to offer the love of learning. They were too practical and busy providing to be concerned about academics. Both my mom and dad have 5th grade educations. Obviously, this does not make them stupid. Quite the opposite, my parents are two of the most intelligent people I ever met. Their infinite resourcefulness always stunned me. Watching my father take an old piece of rug and cut out insoles for his boots is pure brilliance. Everyone else, myself included would have possibly purchased a new pair of insoles, but more than likely, would have just purchased a new pair of boots.

The Dan Leone that loves to write (yes, I admitted it…leave me alone now) and loves to read and loves to learn…absolutely everything, is what has blossomed all within me, in spite of or perhaps because of my parents.

I remember my first trips to the library. When all my friends would hang out at the Friendly’s, I would sneak away to the Newton Free Library in Newton Corner, just about a mile from my house. I would devour books. I remember the non-fiction racks and thumbing through page after page of exotica from the Time-Life series of books about strange cultures, to the symbols of calculus, to the star maps that I keep in my head even to this day.

But, I was a little older, perhaps 7th grade-ish, when I started hanging out in the fiction aisles. At first, all I did was thumb through the pages until I found a particularly titillating chapter and read it. I didn’t know much about what I read, but I knew that I needed to be hiding in the corner to read it.

Up until that point, I put a lot of effort into not reading fiction as I believed that there was no way to learn from fiction. Fiction was a lie….all fiction, a fantasy.

Then I came upon the first book I ever read as an adult: Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Don’t judge me. I know this is a very preachy and rather juvenile book, and perhaps filled with some spiritual elements that I have always been averse to. But this was the first time in my life that a story captured my imagination. The book made me think and showed me the relationships between story and reality; between symbols and truth.

Over the years, this is one of the few books I have ever read over and over again. I still return to it and have read it to the Baby Goats. I own a first edition and a copy in both Spanish and Greek.

After my introduction to fiction, I began devouring books. I devoured Salinger, Irving, Heller, Poe, Hemingway and even some cold war spy stuff like Follet and Ludlum. Each of them, in my face, with words designed to entertain, subvert, thrill and frighten. I loved them all.
As I have grown older, my love for fiction has grown and so had my love for non-fiction. But then as my passion for reading has grown, my time that I feel I can legitimately devote to it has decreased. This is partially due to the fact that I spend a TON of time on the internet, maximizing it for the way in which I learn; completely spontaneously where the word “surfing” was designed just for me.

Question for BoMR: What work of fiction had the earliest or greatest impact on your life?

As Karlene states, this isn’t about work. If you find yourself bored with a book, you simply cross it off the list and begin another. You can adjust the list larger or smaller as the challenge progresses. You are not accountable for your list. It is up to you to do whatever you wish with it.

There are also prizes associated for participants. Please run over to Karlene’s site to read the rest of the requirements.

This sounds like a great opportunity to get some reading in, share your thoughts with your readers and get some ideas for future readings.

Once I was convinced that boys were “Alloud” into the clubhouse, I jumped on the chance. I would love to see other men join in too. Head on over and sign up.

My Reading List

One of the things that Karlene suggested we do is to go outside your usual genre and try something new. I will do that with my first book. Any of you who me, also know that I DESPISE most self-help books and all that pop psychology stuff. But I was told to read Mending the Broken Bond by Dr Frank Lawlis. So might as well get that one over with.

The second book will be Italian Stories by Josepha Papaleo since I am interested in the Italian story and am trying to write my own version of it. I found out one of the best ways to procrastinate from the act of writing is the read about what others are saying about the topic you are supposed to be writing about. You can always call it “research.”

The third book will be….ummmm….I don’t know yet. I am looking at my shelf (you can see the items from the top three books on my shelf by checking out my profile on GoodReads here. If you have any ideas what you think I should read nex, let me know. I even have a nice Barnes and Noble gift card burning a hole in my wallet.

More to come…