When you finish a novel late at night...

...how long do you let yourself wait before you choose the next novel you're going to read?  (I'm talking here only about fiction; non-fiction is a separate reading category.) 

For me, the answer depends on two factors:

1. How good the novel I just finished was
2. Whether the novel on top of my mental to-read stack still feels appropriate

If the novel I just completed was marvelous, as last night's James Lee Burke (The Glass Rainbow) was, I will sometimes turn off the light and go to sleep not knowing what novel I will read next.  Should I do that, though, I will always determine my next novel the first thing in the morning.

If the novel I was planning to read still feels appropriate, I will get out of bed, take the just-finished book out of my book cover, and put in the new one.  If that novel no longer seems appropriate, then I will usually hunt for a new one right then and actually start it.

Obsessive, much?

Not I.

How I'm reading now

I love reading, but I also love books, their feel, look, heft, smell, pretty much everything about them.  Consequently, when I decided to do my six-week sabbatical trip with just a small carry-on suitcase and a backpack, I was worried.  I knew I'd read a fair number of books during the trip, but I also simply could not carry many books with me.  I opted finally to take a tablet and read only ebooks.  I did not take a single paper book with me.

I enjoyed the experience, which taught me that I could indeed go a long time without reading a physical book.

I still, though, prefer reading paper books.  In fact, I prefer hardbacks over paperbacks.  My next two trips were short enough that I could afford to carry two hardbacks and still fit everything I needed into the small carry-on suitcase and the backpack, so I did.

Today, I packed for two weeks at the beach, a time during which I typically read a fair number of books.  Space is free--multiple vehicles are heading there together--but carrying a lot of books up and down stairs is a hassle, and I now know I could get along just fine with ebooks.

So what am I doing?

Packing a big bag full of heavy, paper, glorious, lovely books. 

I'm sure I will have trips in which I take only a tablet--the upcoming journey to the U.K. for World Fantasy Con 2013 springs to mind--but for now, I'm traveling with paper books whenever I reasonably can.

Thoughts after living without paper books for six weeks

As I've mentioned in other posts, my six-week sabbatical trip to Europe was the first time in my memory that I have gone on a trip without any paper books.  Instead, I read ebooks on a seven-inch tablet.  At the end of that time, my feelings were decidedly mixed.

On the plus side, I comfortably read quite a few books from my enormous, house-sized, to-read stack.  I had no problems with screen clarity, the weight of the tablet, battery life, or any other aspect of living ebook-only.  When I read a novel and wanted to immediately read a related one, I just bought the new one online and started reading it. 

On the minus side, I missed paper books.  I've been reading exclusively on paper since my return, and I definitely prefer paper to any electronic medium.  I love the look, feel, heft--pretty much everything about books. 

Except their weight while traveling.  I do not love that.

My conclusion is one that wastes money:  On any trip where weight is a factor, I'm going to continue to travel with only ebooks.  I'm also going to continue to buy paper books at my normal ferocious rate, so all my ebooks will be duplicates of paper books I already own.  If I buy an ebook, I'll also buy its paper counterpart.

Sue me.  I love books.

A sign of age

My Kindle 2 was waiting for me when I arrived home late last night. I haven't done much more than set it up and browse a few pages of its instructions, but I can already see that it's an improvement over the original. It changes pages faster than the first one did--though still slower than I'd like--and it feels a bit sturdier than its predecessor. I find it annoying that Amazon made the case an accessory you have to buy, but whatever; I can deal with that. I expect to use this one more than the first.

As I was playing with it, however, I was also choosing the next book I was going to read. I am, as anyone who's looked at pictures of my office will know, always awash in books, and I love having them all around me. I was picking up and examining a few hardcovers, the Kindle on the desk in front of me, when it really struck me just how much more I like books, real books, the physical objects, than reading them on the Kindle--or any other device. The Kindle is a great travel aid and a nice way to save weight, so I recommend it to frequent travelers, but I can't help but feel that a book inside the Kindle just isn't as magically powerful as a book sitting on a shelf.

I expect this is a sign of my age, a generational issue that will one day fade into obscurity, but if I'm alive to see that day I expect to mark it in sadness--and to keep supporting whatever publishers, large or small, who produce actual books.