I am reading digitally now. My husband gave me a Kindle Fire for Christmas. Granted, I was doing a lot of digital reading before, but just not books on a regular basis. I have reviewed and/or written blurbs for books based on electronic copies through email; I have read websites and literary magazines on my iPhone; but, I’ve never considered myself a high consumer of digital product (books anyway) even though all but one of my books appear in a digital format.

Did I stop reading print? No. More on that in a minute.

The first book I paid to download was a poetry book, but I didn’t enjoy the poetry (not the formatting or anything) so I returned it after on a few pages and downloaded Stephen Fry’s book ABOUT poetry titled The Ode Less Traveled. The first picture I’m showing gives you an idea of what the book looks like on the screen and shows a bit of what you can do with highlighting (more on that).

“The Ode Less Traveled” was a decent read, but I’m not a frequent writer of metrical verse (although I do love when people do it well) so I didn’t end up using a lot of the writing prompts that Fry includes. That being said, if you are looking for a good study on metrical verse (he does go into some free verse) with writing prompts and additional tips for writers (including a quite funny – he is a funny guy – appendix) then this is worth a read. I’ll keep it on my Kindle as a resource and I’ll copy this review on Goodreads with a 4 out of 5 ranking.

The highlighting and notes feature is a great thing for me because I love to take notes while I read. I also like how the Kindle keeps track of when you book mark. You know, once you have bookmarked in a regular book, each time you move it you have to move the bookmark or have a stack of stickies. Although I tend to use a notecard and write page numbers down for things I wan to go back to. The Kindle does all of that for you.

The picture isn’t terribly good (ah low-res iPhone upload) but you can see different places for highlights, bookmarks and notes. Yes, you can write yourself a note to say – perhaps – I like this part.

I’m now reading two novels on my kindle and a magazine. I am using the Amazon Prime lending library for one book and the other I purchased. I’m not sure I’ll keep prime (you get a 30 day free trial with Kindle purchase) as I don’t use Amazon’s movie/TV service, but it is an excellent option for those who are very on the go for all their media needs (and then free shipping when you need something in your hand).  In addition I have set up Google Reader again (so yep email me your blogs so I can add you to my reader again), Facebook, Twitter, Angry Birds and Words with Friends which means I can make an hour fly by as I read, play and perhaps send an email or two (not long emails because typing on the Kindle is harder than on the tiny phone keyboard! Why is the period so close to the space bar on the Kindle?).

In print I am reading a poetry book and a novel.

I still went to the used bookstore recently to trade in books and pick up some more on my list.

I tried out Zinio but found I don’t like having an extra service for the newstand/magazine reading. It was just frustrating.

What else did I find out?

1. I’m reading more than I did a few weeks ago
2. Some poetry books don’t look good electronically if they weren’t programmed well even if you can change the font size. This, however, does not mean all and most you can preview a sample before buying the whole thing. That being said, I’ll probably still buy most of my poetry in print
3. I used to read to the end of chapters, now I find myself often reading by % since the Kindle shows me you are at 50% of this book
4. The Kindle Fire is a bit heavy but still has a decent feel to it once you have it in a nice case (I have one that is sort of faux Moleskin so folded back it looks like you are holding a book
5. I feel more organized

I am overall pleased to have the Kindle Fire and I think it will continue to morph some of my reading and book purchasing habits, but I don’t see paper (at least not yet) being non-existent in my library. If, for nothing else, I don’t like knick-knacks and I have WAY too many shelves.