E-readers have taken over and the printed page will soon enough go the way of papyrus scrolls. But I have resisted them, and swore allegiance to books. Real ones. That smell kinda funky and can make your arm ache while reading them in bed. And I never, ever, ever would have wavered had I not got a Kindle for Christmas.

I’m in love. I can hardly bear to be parted from that sleek hunk of gadgetry. Learning how to use the Kindle was fairly easy and I quickly stocked it with a bunch of Amazon freebies (they have tons of classics and out-of-copyright books in Kindle format at no charge – woohoo!). Next was hooking up with my library to borrow from its Kindle collection.

I received the base model, and believe it or not, I prefer it to the Kindle Touch and Kindle Fire. I’m attached to my MacBook at all other times, so I don’t need a pseudo-tablet (the Fire) and turning pages on the Touch was more cumbersome than on the basic Kindle. But that’s me. Luckily, some brick-and-mortar retailers are allowed to sell Kindles, so you can test drive them before choosing one for yourself or a book-loving friend or family member. It is truly a great gift idea, which to me is something fun or useful that one would never think of getting for oneself. And trust me, I never would have.