Sometimes Change is Hard

When I dove into using an e-reader, I wasn’t an early adapter, but I wasn’t super far behind the curve. My Kindle was the Kindle Keyboard – no fancy touch screen, and funky little buttons at the bottom for typing, should you decide you want to do that. And I loved it.

It served me well for…seven years? Something like that.

And then, a couple of weeks ago, it died.

That was a sad, sad day. But, Amazon being Amazon, I popped over, considered my options, and ordered. And my new Kindle (the very basic version) arrived the next day.

When did everything at Amazon get a touch screen? Why did everything at Amazon get a touch screen?!

See, the thing I loved about my Kindle keyboard is that I could read while I was doing just about anything. Changing diapers? Check. Washing dishes? Check. Brushing teeth? Check. You just set it down where you can see it and read away. The new Kindle? Not so much. And it’s all because of the touch screen.

Most of what I try to read through involves water of some sort in some way. A little drop of water on the screen and, sure, no worries, wipe it off. Yeah, not anymore. Now, the water drop will, half the time, pull up a dictionary for the word that it happened to land on. And you want to wipe it off? You just turned the page. Or resized your font. Or both. So now, you have to turn off the Kindle, wipe off the page, turn it back on. It’s a pain.

And since we mentioned turning pages, let’s talk about the fact that reading in bed just got more annoying. You flip over and the sheet, or your hair, or a harsher than average breath of wind touches the screen and your page just turned or you resized your font or turned on the dictionary. Or all of those things. Honestly, I spend more time undoing stuff that I never wanted to do in the first place than I do reading. (Ok, that might be a bit of hyperbole, but it feels that way.)

I keep hoping I’ll adjust and learn to love it. So far? No dice.

I miss my old Kindle.