Tech Tuesday: Yes, I’m Writing About POK Again!

I like ebooks. A lot. It’s modern times and I’m a modern girl, friends. But I also love books as objects: the heft, the feel of the paper, smell of the ink.

As I perused the wonderful new book offerings at Stitches West, I discovered that June Hemmons-Hiatt’s newly revised edition of the Principles of Knitting is available as a Kindle book. It is not cheap, and it is a HUGE file, but I am intrigued by the idea of having access to this splendid resource at all times, since I can access my Kindle library from my phone, from my Kindle or from my laptop.

Let’s face it, it would be tough to carry the paper book in my knitting bag or possibly even the trunk of my new car for that matter, since the new edition is an astonishing 736 pages and felt like it weighs in at about 12 pounds.  Bringing it home in my already-stuffed suitcase was out of the question. Okay, it was probably more like 6 pounds, but still, I had to leave it behind. It hurt my heart a little bit to walk away from this re-write I’ve been looking forward to for so long.

Thus, now that I’ve seen it in person and know I want to own it alongside my 1988 edition,  I’m considering my purchasing options. Along with the magic of total portability and weightlessness, I am really tempted by the ease of a hyperlinked table of contents, the ability to search for a word or phrase, copying and pasting for notation in handouts and blog posts, no space taken up in my tiny house, and all the other things I love about ebooks. But what about about a possible post-apocalyptic world in which I live by candlelight, push all my belongings yarn around in a shopping cart and have no access to any of my data?

Sheesh. What to do?

I’m going to download the sample, sleep on it, and decide tomorrow. Then I promise I’ll write about some other book the next time.