Musing Mondays #3

This meme is hosted by Should be Reading.
Every week a new 'musing' question is posted by the host for all participants to answer in their own posts.

This week's musing is:

What devices - if any - do you read books on? Do you find it enjoyable, or still somewhat bothersome? Or: if you only read the print books, why haven't you chosen to read on any devices?

I have owned a Kindle now for a little under a year, and I have to say that I do love it - I never thought I would. For so long I had been strongly opposed to them, and thought I would never buy into any of them. However, a friend of mine (Jenny at Chocolate Chunky Munkie) got one, and raved about how good it was, so it was then that I started weighing up the pros and cons of an eReader. Cons such as, you don't have the feel of the pages when you turn them, or the 'character' of the book (weight, size, aesthetic, print type and size etc), and you can't display it proudly on your bookshelves. However, the pros eventually outweighed the cons: I could get books that I wouldn't otherwise be able to read (because they're from a smaller American publisher, or something like that), they are often cheaper, it takes a little weight off my already-overflowing bookshelves (although since I've had an eReader, I still buy as many, if not more, paperbacks) etc. Another pro point for the Kindle has arrived since I've started this blog - I can read and review much more for authors and publishers alike - NetGalley has been a real treasure over the past few months - and I wouldn't have been able to read all of these ARCs without my trusty Kindle!

I have found that reading from the Kindle is actually a lot easier than I had originally thought it would be, as well. I have trouble reading from my laptop screen for too long in one go, and have to take breaks often, but the Kindle screen is so sophisticated, that I actually find it easier to read from than from real paper (a lot of the time anyway). It's also lighter, easier to hold than a paperback/hardback and I can lie down in bed and read with ease (a huge plus!)!
I can get to the stage where, if I've read for example, maybe three eBooks in a row, that I start to miss the feel of a physical book - this isn't a problem though, because as I've said, I still own enough physical books to fill a small library (and am being forced to buy a second bookcase this week - yep, forced). So I tend to alternate between eBook and physical books most of the time.

There is a lot I can say about eReaders, so I think I will stop rambling at you all pretty soon. I will say though, as I am aspiring to work in publishing after I graduate from University, that eBooks are changing the world of publishing at an incredibly fast pace. I haven't quite decided whether or not this is a good thing yet, but I'm sure publishers will be able to adapt. Bookshops on the other hand (in Britain at least), have been suffering, which is a real shame (there is one little bookshop in Hay-on-Wye - Bookends - that shall be particularly missed), and my current place of work, Waterstones, has also taken a hit. I hope though that eReader users, such as myself, will continue to hold physical books very close to their hearts, despite the wonderful selection of reading devices, and continue to support bookshops across the globe!

This is all I shall say on the subject for now! But what do all of you guys think? Do you own an eReader? Do you love or loathe them? If you do own one, what was the deciding factor that lead you to get one? Let me know in the comments!