Youth Talk

I’ve never understood the craze behind Kindles … until recently. Ever since Amazon unveiled their series of e-readers back in 2007, a new phenomenon has arisen with millions of people hooked to staring at yet another electronic screen.

For me, nothing beats the pleasure of physically turning the pages of a book. I honestly find it quite tiresome having to constantly swipe right every time I finish reading a page.

There’s also the satisfaction of being able to smell the pages of an old book, which strangely enough cannot be done with an electronic device.

And call me petty, but the ‘you’ve read this much’ irritates me a lot. I don’t want and need to know that I’ve finished ’47 per cent of And The Mountains Echoed’. If anything, it serves as a brutal reality that I will eventually leave the world of war-torn Afghanistan and be forced to encounter my own personal problems again.

Quite recently, I was forced to engage in online shopping, for the Kindle, when a required book for my A2 coursework was not available in bookstores on the island.

I can now honestly see the appealing nature behind it.

It’s almost addictive being able to buy something by simply tapping on a screen. And, then there’s the ‘Recommended’ section, where one is exposed to similarly appealing books. On a whim, I went and purchased five more books on the Kindle.

Of course, one has to commend Amazon for rejuvenating the youth of today’s interest in literature.

In this era of binge-watching Netflix shows or playing PS4, it is heartening to see a renewed drive for reading, regardless of the platform used. Nevertheless, it still remains disheartening to see six-year-olds addicted to iPhones rather than Enid Blyton.