Tolkien on the Kindle

[Mister Underhill]

I'm not particularly picky about a specific edition -- for many, many years my Hobbit and LotR were a mismatched set of battered second-hand paperbacks. But I get what you're saying. The overall diminished physical experience of reading is an effect of the e-reader that I didn't fully anticipate.

As I mentioned upthread, it is strange to miss the heft of a physical book in your hand. Also, I have a habit that I guess I've never really noticed -- when I start to get tired while reading, I have a tendency to flip ahead to look for a good stopping place, like the next section break or the end of the chapter. It's much less natural to do that on the Kindle. Also, I like the smell of books. Particularly brand new ones and nice old musty ones. Ray Bradbury has a line in Something Wicked This Way Comes about the ancient mummy spice smell of libraries or something to that effect.

I'll always prefer a physical book over an electronic one, but I do love the Kindle as a supplement to my normal reading habits.