I could have said, "Why Niles* Is Great in Bed," but I do have scruples.

My husband, because he loves me and because he realized we could write it off (but mostly because he loves me), gave me a Kindle as my Christmas/birthday gift. I fell in love. And the other night, I discovered why a Kindle makes for great bedtime reading.

Since the Sony Reader, the Kindle, and other ebook readers, publishers and readers have discussed the plausibility of paper books disappearing (for example, Monica raised the discussion yesterday).

Yes, I love paper books. I love the smell. I love the sound of the binding giving way for the first time. I love walking into a bookstore, dizzy with opportunities for new friends. But more than that, I love stories and characters. I love whatever brings these stories and characters into my life.

Still, I don’t think the paper book will die. At least, not for a long time.

Here are some reasons why I love my Kindle:

1. When reading in bed, instead of trying to hold a heavy book open with one hand while hiding the other arm under the covers to keep it warm, I can hold the light Kindle one-handed easily. Also, there’s no awkward adjusting when I turn a page (this happens when I’m laying on my side).
2. You can get almost any classic book free on Kindle. Who doesn’t think free books are a plus? If you’re a classics lover, this is a dream come true.
3. Books are cheaper. (No, I haven’t done the math to see how long it would take to pay back the cost of the Kindle.)
4. Currently, if a bookstore overbuys a title, they can return these books to the publisher. They do so by ripping off the cover. These books cannot be reused. Not only that, but if they don’t sell, that’s a lot of wasted paper and money. With ebook technology, perhaps publishers can save some money and take more risks.
5. Though it costs a small fee to upload Word docs on a Kindle, I can. I have yet to do it (since my Kindle is still new), but this feature allows me to make editing notes in the doc. This gives my eyes a much-needed break from the computer screen.
6. Speaking of that break, I can read blogs on my Kindle.
7. All of my Kindle books and notes are backed up in my online Amazon account. (Yes, Amazon is taking over the world along with Apple.) This means if something ever does happen to my Kindle (God forbid), I don’t lose my work or my books. (You can’t say this if a fire ripped through your house.)
8. The Kindle has a built-in dictionary. If I need to know the meaning of a word, I scroll the cursor in front of that word, and voila! The dictionary’s definition appears in the footnotes. I could have used this feature while reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog.
9. Buying books (or downloading them for free) is easy-peasy. Literally one-touch. My husband would put this particular feature in the below list (things that I don’t love). But I’m the one writing this, so it stays here.

And here are the things that I don’t love about my Kindle:

1. I can’t borrow a book through Kindle. In this economy, I borrow most books from the library or from friends. Perhaps Kindle could work on some technology (like the technology that allows me to "borrow" audio books from my library) so that after a two- or three-week period, the book automatically deletes from your Kindle, or something like that.
2. I’m more nervous reading my Kindle while eating or cooking. Sauces splashes on a book are one thing, but I worry about corrupting an electronic device.
3. I enjoy the bookstore experience. I love flipping through books to decide which one I’ll buy next. Of course, I lose this whenever I shop at Amazon period. Their "Look Inside!" feature will never come close to a real bookstore experience.

Since I don’t own the new Nook (Barnes and Noble’s competitive ebook reader), I can’t do a fair comparison. My husband researched some of the differences here. If I remember correctly, he decided on the Kindle because the Nook does not offer Word doc support while the Kindle does. As a writer and editor, this is a key feature for me. It does seem that the Nook as some sort of technology for lending books, though I cannot confirm this, and I don’t know what this means exactly.

When I asked my husband if he researched the Sony reader, he replied, "Oh, Sony’s are out." He’s the gadget expert in the family.

*Niles is the name of my Kindle.