Upgrading Great Lost Books to Kindle

I have always been fond of books. They open a window to other worlds, minds and perspectives. Back in my school days, I used to save money for the entire year to be able to finally buy a few good books during my summer vacation. In my college days, I was entirely dependent on the library, not being able to afford good books with money that was supposed to pay my fixed living costs. Since the day I earned my first salary, I have never borrowed books. Always bought them, collected them and took good care of them. Till the time that buying books became almost like a luxury with needing me to actually read them right away. Many books waited for months and sometimes ears to be touched and read by me. While some others enjoyed the privilege of being read or referred to and glance through every few years.

I now have a book collection of about 2000 books, with books as old as over 15 years. They have lost their beauty over the years- pages yellowed, covers curled and dust stricken. Even the pages of some books are coming off. Moreover, my apartment started running out of space to store them!

That’s when so reluctantly decided to try the kindle platform for reading. It’s been over a year since I bought one and since then have not bought any physical books. It feels like I fell in love with reading all over again. The pages always feel like new and the illumination is just right for my eyes. Being light and backlit, it allows me to comfortably hold it and read while I lie down on my bed. Kindle versions are easier to buy and also priced much less as compared to physical book. It also allows you to lend books to others too.

I can now carry my entire bookshelf on a kindle wherever I go. since all the books are available to me anytime, I have started going back to many old books more often. The search function especially is a gift! Sometimes you want to reread something you read long back and with a text search, you can quickly find the page and paragraph. I also use the highlighter often which allows me not just nightlight text but also to collect the highlighted text in a separate space. It seems this new way of reading will stick with me. I have introduced the same to my daughter and she lived it too!

This new way of reading had an interesting side effect. I now understand very well how a book needs to be formatted and structured for a kindle reader to be most comfortable. I see that so many old publications are now available on Kindle but so poorly formatted that one cant love reading them on kindle. That’s when I decided to pick such books and republish good and sometimes lost books back on kindle by decorating them.

In the last couple of months I have published some books that you can find on this link. I started by reviving some books on Vedanta and now plan to work on some other topics too. If you find anything interesting, feel free to buy them.

https://www.amazon.in/hz/wishlist/ls/OBAI6PVU2L98?ref_=wl_share

Hope you found this post useful in some way. How? Let me know in the comments section.