Dear e-reader,
It is over. I am sorry. It is not you. It is me. I know it wasn’t supposed to end like this. And yes, I remember how great it was while it lasted. Three years. That was all it took. Now it is over.
If you remember, I loved you like I loved no one else in my life. I wrote love letters disguised as newspaper articles. I recommended you to anyone who is ready to listen. I argued about you at parties. I, this was the ultimate sacrifice, fought with online trolls for you. I can’t anymore. Like I said, it is not you. It is me. I am in love with someone else.
I don’t love you does not mean I don’t read anymore. Of course I do. But I have realised something in the three years I was with you. Books are about emotions. Reading books is entertaining, thought-provoking and all that. But reading and having books is also a statement. Displaying a book on my bookshelf is a statement about the kind of person I am. It is also a sweet reminder for me about the most joyous moments of my life. And a way to pass on my books, my knowledge and the book reading habit to my son. And this is where you fail the most miserably. You see when I buy a book for you, I can’t show it off. I can’t see it the moment I open my eyes in the morning. I never pick that book on an impulse to read a particular chapter.
At the end of the day you are just a cheap piece of plastic that will die in a few years. I don’t get nostalgic about you and I regret that some of the best books I read on you are lost forever for me. Sure, they are on the cloud, I can download them whenever I want and all that. But it is never personal like having a book on my shelf.
Still I found a way to avoid this breakup. I started thinking of the books I read as either pulpers or keepers. You know the pulpers very well. The Lee Childs, the Grishams, the Gillian Flynns. In short, the ‘3 Idiots’ of the book world. Books you enjoy. But books that you don’t mind not showing off. So I loaded them up on you, read them, enjoyed them and that was it. Then I got the keepers. The Naipauls, the Wodehouses, you get the drift. I bought them the old fashioned way. In paper. Real paper too. All printed and bound. And I found out I still love them. I can put them on my shelf. May be one day my son will stop playing Minecraft and look at the weird things on that shelf.
And it was fine. I kept you busy with the pulpers and my shelf busy with the keepers. It could have gone ahead like that forever, except I have this new phone. The iPhone 6 Plus. The screen on this thing is gorgeous and more importantly it is big. Very big. It is also super thin and super light. So now I don’t feel the need to carry my phone and you around just so I can read a little. My phone does that job just fine. And the pulpers will now go on the phone.
I don’t know what I will do with you. Maybe, I will pass you on to someone, or just leave you in a desk until you die. I am sorry. It is over.
Thanks,
A book lover