More or Less Reading?

I received a Kindle several years ago as a gift, and this week I'm upgrading to a Kindle Fire HD. I'm excited about all the new features the Fire offers, and like many others I too made reading a priority for 2013.

Every time I read someone's list of  resolutions with reading as a goal, I wondered, have eReaders increased or decreased our reading? You would think the convenience of having the of option millions of books at our fingertips for immediate download, would increase readership, but based on all the resolutions I'm seeing, I'm not sure it did. Initially, I imagine millions of books were downloaded, but all of them read? Doubtful. Why? I have a theory.

Information overload for one. When there are a  zillion different titles at your disposal, and a new book is added every minute, or so it seems, you soon own more books and magazines than you have time to read. The marketing statistics will tell us how many eReaders sold and how many books have been downloaded, but they cannot tell us how many are actually being read. And secondly, I miss books, real books, and I bet I'm not alone.

I love my Kindle, the convenience of instant gratification and being able to carry hundreds of books wherever I go. But, nothing compares to holding a book in my hand, or the smell of its pages while curled up in a chair by the fireplace. I've never gotten lost in a story on my Kindle the way I do when reading a real book. The experience just isn't the same.

Hundreds of books are on my Kindle waiting to be read, and at one time, I read a book a week. Reading is one of my favorite, most passionate things to do. I hope to do better this year, but I'll need to be more discerning in my choices. I'd love to hear from you, other readers. What do you think? Have the use of eReaders increased or decreased your reading pleasure? Are you reading more books or fewer? Leave me a comment. I'd love to know your thoughts.