My Love-hate Relationship with My Kindle

I own the Kindle Touch. It's light, it's small (it fits in my tiny purse!) and books are generally cheaper on it. Not to mention all of the Indie books that you can find for, say, 99 cents or less. For example, one book I'm really pining for is The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. At Walmart (basically the only place in my city that sells books, besides one Indie bookstore that is scarily expensive) the book is $16.99. On my Kindle, it's $9.50. That's a big difference, especially for me, someone who hates spending money.
Yet, I refuse to buy the book on my Kindle.
Why? I'll get to that soon enough. First, I'm going to list all of the pro's and cons of my Kindle Touch.

The Kindle

Pros

• It's cute. 
• It's portable. 
• Books are more affordable. 
• No one can judge what you're reading.
• You can look up the definitions of words within seconds. 
• It's easier to hold when you're trying to read in bed. 
• You can make the fonts bigger so you don't have to read with your glasses on. 
• You can put music on it. 
• You can buy a book from anywhere and be able to start reading it within seconds. 
• You can read samples of books.
• You can take your entire library with you wherever you go. 
• You can buy writing books without people asking you about your writing. 
• It connects to Wi-Fi, so yes, you can use the internet on it. 
• You can play word games on it (for free!)
• You can highlight and make notes whenever you want and they don't harm the book. 
• The e-ink stuff is really cool. 

Cons

• It moves really slowly. 
• The notes and highlights you make? Yeah, they all go into one gigantic confusing file. 
• It's really easy to lose your place if you just accidently touch the screen.
• It takes forever to get back to whatever place you were at. 
• You have to charge it. (Not very often, which kind of makes it worse because it runs out of charge when you want it most.)
• It's not a book. 
• You can't look at the pretty covers. 
• You can't stroke the pretty covers. 
• You can't admire how many pages the book has. 
• You can make notes, but you can't find exactly where you made those notes so it's kind of hard to understand what you were talking about. 
• It's cold, hard technology. 
• There's no paper. 
• No ink (that you can feel). 
• No new-book-smell. 

Overall, if you like reading, I'd suggest getting a Kindle. It's a good investment. If you're a writer, however--or just a bibliophile--owning a Kindle can be quite dangerous. You can own every book EVER with just a few swipes of your finger. You don't feel the cash leaving your pocket because it's all electronic. If you're not careful, you could go into some serious book-debt. 

You can also get tricked into buying some really awesome books electronically rather than physically. You've been wanting to read this book forever. It's cheaper and easier to get...so you press buy. You devour the book in a day. It's even more awesome than you'd thought it would be. 

But then what?

You can't admire the cover. You can't add the book to your shelf. You can't open it up and easily go to your favorite parts. It's difficult to study the pages if you're a writer trying to learn from the book. The book on your Kindle does not physically exist. 

I don't know. Being a person who collects books like trophies (because I'm not really the athletic type), this can be really distressing. There are several books that I bought on my Kindle that I really wish I hadn't. 

Too name a few:

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Across the Universe and A Million Suns by Beth Revis

Graceling by Kristen Cashore

I regret purchasing all of those books digitally because they were too amazing not to have a physical copy. I love my Kindle, but that is why I hate my Kindle. I love being able to look at the samples of all the amazing books, and to be able to buy the books that are still good, but I can live without seeing them on my shelves. However, if I read a sample to a book that looks like it's going to be another Best Book Ever, I won't buy it. I'd rather wait and go crazy over it until I finally get to get it at a bookstore than not have a physical copy of it. 

What about you? Do you have a Kindle? If so, do you like it better than the physical book? If you don't have a Kindle, are you considering purchasing one?

Okay, I know. I know. I know. I used the word "awesome" at least a gazillion times in this post. Sorry.