Hello!

When I subscribed to Kindle Unlimited as a gift to my husband for Christmas (we have a joint Amazon account so it was one of those presents that also happens to be a gift for me), I didn’t think it would effect my reading habits too much – the feeling of a physical book, the smell, the pretty shelves, a Kindle is great but it can’t replace that.

And that’s still true… but after making the most of KU, pre-ordering several books as ebooks and then trying to go back to reading a hardback book in bed – I think I want to be a Kindle girlie.

For one, pre-ordering books is significantly cheaper – so theoretically I’d save money on books that I don’t enjoy because I can curate my physical collection and only get the prettiest of special editions, so in the long run I’ll be spending less money on books and only having my favourites in my physical collection (girl math).

For two, the Kindle doesn’t change size whether you’re reading an 800-page epic fantasy or a 100-page cutesy romance novella – in part, that makes it more difficult because I can read what feels like loads and the percentage has barely gone up, but (arguably, more importantly) – it’s way less intimidating than actually holding an 800 page book and much easier to fit in a bag when I’m out and about!

For three, back to the pre-orders – it’s available instantly. My husband and I have pre-ordered both the Kindle and the physical editions of Fourth Wing sequel Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros and I know I’m going to be diving straight into the Kindle Edition while he waits eagerly on the doormat for his physical edition.

(I’m going to need the head start anyway because he reads at lightning speed)

But none of this is new information – the debate of ebooks vs physical books has been going on ever since Amazon first popularised e-readers. Personally, I don’t see them as competition anymore and more like complimentary services – ebooks make reading accessible for a lot of people in terms of disability, financial accessibility, availability of bookshops and so much more, but physical books still have a place and both always will.

For me it comes down to convenience and money – having all my books on my Kindle makes everything so much easier, I find it much easier to read in bed without holding an actual book (especially with how long some romance books are getting at the moment, I think I’d have got biceps from reading Things We Left Behind by Lucy Score!) and it is so much cheaper, even factoring in the cost of Kindle Unlimited every month.

For example: I preordered Wildfire by Hannah Grace on my Kindle for £3.99, then I saw that The Works were doing an exclusive special edition with sprayed edges and because it’s The Works, it was only £5 – so I spent £8.99 on two versions of a book that would have cost me at least £9.99 at full retail value price from Waterstones. Granted, as an example it still doesn’t massively demonstrate my point because I still bought a physical version, but it was still the cheapest option and I got a beautiful special edition of a book I rated 5 stars!

(don’t acknowledge that I bought it before I read it and rated it 5 stars)

All round, the convenience of a Kindle should theoretically stop me from ever pre-ordering physical books but then the pretty special editions will always get me. I’m working really hard on resisting them though.

After an ‘accidental’ trip to buy more books at the end of last week, I’ve decided (again) that I’m going on a book buying ban because I really need to cut down my physical tbr before I buy anymore. The difference this time is that I’ve decided I’m going to go book shopping in the first week of December to buy some cheesy Christmas romances from the Works for the festive season and I think having a definitive end goal makes it feel more achievable. It’s almost like a challenge to see how many books I can read between now and December (and with five books on my tbr for this month that I’ve not read yet, it should be a fair few!).

So maybe 2024 will be the year of the Kindle book – I’ve currently got four books pre-ordered for release in 2024 and three of them are Kindle editions. Will there inevitably be pretty special editions from Waterstones or Illumicrate that I can’t resist? Yes, but I still think that if I try and cut down my pre-orders to Kindle, I will still spend less money on books than if I was buying a standard edition and a special edition.

Or at least, that’s what I’m telling myself!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx