Keeping Up With the Times of the iBook

I love to read for fun, and I therefore have tons of books. In the cabinet in my bedroom, the bookshelf in my living room, and in several boxes in storage, you are guaranteed to find books of all sorts, sizes and genres.


But surprisingly, when tablets and ereaders were first introduced to the world, I wasn't exactly on the bandwagon. I'm not exactly too fond of big changes, and to me, this was pretty huge. How could a computer replace a good book? There was no way anything would be able to replicate the overall experience of reading a good book. Sure the text would obviously be the same. But I wouldn't be able to feel the paper at my fingertips as I changed the page, or highlight phrases or sentences that I loved, or flip the corner of a page down to save my spot when no excuse for a bookmark was near.

Even after I bought my iPad, I continued to buy and read regular books, refusing to use my tablet for to read. But then I realized that reading from my iPad would actually resolve some of the issues I experience when I read from a normal book.

For example, I have horrible eyesight. And I do mean horrible. So when I saw people at the gym reading from their books, I envied them because even with my contacts on, I can't focus my eyes on small print. Plus, the struggle to keep the book on the right page could easily get annoying. So I decided to stick to listening to music while working out.

The other day I knew I had to go to the gym, but I was also really in the mood to read Pride and Prejudice again. Solution? Download the book onto my iPad (for freeeeee) and take my iPad to the gym. And oh, what a glorious idea it was. I kept myself so distracted by Mr. Bingley's ball and his affair with Jane Bennet that I was able to work out for quite a while without noticing that I had bicycled over 20 miles.

Another problem that's been solved was reading at night. My light switch is quite a distance away from my bed, so reading at night wasn't really an option if I didn't want to get out of bed. But now with my iPad, I can comfortably read at night with the lights off until I get tired, and put my tablet aside when I'm ready for sleep.

And with the announcement of iBook 2, I felt a sudden urge to possibly make a return to school and get another degree. I'm sure that when the time comes, the Apple app will have college textbooks for sale. And we'll definitely still carry cute iPad tablet cases and bags.

Can't wait!

-Jinni