When the Amazon Kindle e-book reader was first announced, I was appalled. I paid no mind to all of the features included or to any claims of its greatness – I vowed to have nothing to do with this cold, electronic square which was obviously out to destroy reading as we had always known it. You see, as a girl who prides herself in the fact that two-thirds of her room is made up of books upon books upon… well, more books, the Kindle looked like little more than some alien machine hell-bent on destroying everything I loved. I simply couldn’t imagine a world without the smell of Barnes & Noble or the familiar creak of opening a new hardback novel. However, last April – a few months following my initial resentment – I was planning for my trip to London. I was allowed one suitcase and one carry-on bag – how in the world was I to carry enough books for a six-hour flight (as well as waiting in airports and the six-hour return trip)? Slowly, and with some bitterness, I began to consider the possibility that owning a Kindle might actually be – dare I say it – a worthwhile investment.

Now, for the most part, I like technology and the advancements it produces. But, the idea of technology replacing something that had existed so significantly in my life from a very early age was both unfamiliar and distressing. However, I began discovering resources like the Gutenberg Project – a site hosting completely free downloads of thousands of classic novels – and I felt my mind beginning to change. Was I going to the ‘dark side’? Was I betraying the art of reading? Would the Amazon Kindle, and all the subsequent models of e-readers, be society’s downfall? Not only did they aim to replace how we read books, but magazines and newspapers as well. Still, storing a Kindle in my carry-on bag was far handier than trying to shove numerous books into space I didn’t have.

Since then, I’ve had a change of heart – maybe it is just about time for us to accept our emergence into this age of digital media. With e-readers, the need to print and produce paper copies is limited, therefore reducing our carbon footprint and overproduction. And, though unfortunately, teenagers seem to ‘hate’ reading, I desire to see the prospect of this new medium encouraging a new generation of readers. Accessibility, convenience and the ability to hold thousands of books, magazines, and newspapers in a nine by seven inch square are a few of the legitimate features that make this new technology so necessary. The possibility of it replacing how we read all together seems extreme, but maybe it’s what we need.