My wife and I do that all the time. In fact, when we are going to a restaurant, I might tell her that I'm bringing a book in case things get boring. We both work from home so we're together all the time, and we have to read sometime.
Oh, you have fallen as a victim of technology. My husband is also a reader but he doesn't have a kindle, not even a tablet. And he uses his smart phone for the internet in times that he is alone. Especially when we go on vacation abroad, we never use our gadgets as much as possible unless for a common cause like trying to find our way. It's not really being romantic but particularly in public places, it is our poilcy not to use the gadget when we are with someone, not necessarily with my husband.
I do not know how things are in the Philippines; but over here, just about every doctor's office, and many other places, actually put out magazines exactly for people to sit and read when they are there. This has been true for years and years. Nowdays, since most people have smartphones and/or tablets, we just have those along with us when we go somewhere, especially if we think we may be sitting and waiting for a while. Now, @Corie Henson , this is probably going to shock you terribly; but my husband and I also do the very same as does Ken and his wife. Furthermore, we even do it when we are at home ! How shocking , you say ? Sometimes, we even send each other messages, and even little love notes. Yes, I guess we have fallen under the spell of technology......
Let's see here. I do suppose my wife and I might start a new policy whereby we force converse with each other instead of doing those things that are more relaxing to us. To be specific, we are all different. What is perfect for one couple is not necessarily even remotely good for another. Some people have a serious need to talk, and talk, and talk. I do not. While I might prefer that ALL derned cell phones be banned from restaurants, buses, trains, stores, walk ways, cars, men's rooms, planes, work places, banks, and parks I see no harm relaxing with a quiet kindle. Books have never had the habit of talking over someone's attempts at conversation. But, that is me and my preference. Note worthy is the fact that when we are on these very forums there is not much conversation going on between spouses. Fact is, neither my wife nor I "store up" conversation so we can go out and air our difficult or merry days in a public place. What might be innocent prattle to one person is an absolute bother to me and a good study on a kindle or even a book would be far more informative and relaxing while maneuvering the chop sticks or fork toward my mouth. And, since it is not polite to talk with a full mouth of food and talking allows our food to get cold we do little conversing anyway. The other point of reference for our family is that my wife (for relaxation) has THOUSANDS of posts on various forums and reads her kindle when she is not doing that. I only have a couple thousand so what do I do when she is posting or reading? If I have something to say, I say it. If I do not, I do something that I personally enjoy doing. We do have one unspoken standing rule though. While there may be a fire in the bedroom, it is not a Kindle Fire. Vacations? We have never had one, but when we do I assure one and all that the ipads, cell phones and kindles will go with us. After all, inquiring minds need to know!
@Yvonne Smith, I'm not really that shocked but still, there's a wave of shock. Now that I read of @Bobby Cole's post about couple relationship, I wonder where the world is going to. Are humans starting to be slaves of technology. There were times that I had been preoccupied with Candy Crush (and who isn't? Only my husband is not, maybe) my husband would call my attention when we are together. He would remind me that time is precious and that the game can always wait. "Will that game run away from you?" We always have a light walk around the block after dinner when the weather is fine. That is one way of bonding for us. We just talk while walking and one of the usual topic is technology - we are both in the IT industry, my husband as a former computer programmer and my job is in comptuer operations. But that's just that, talk, conversation, discussion, anything goes but without gadgets.
Now Corie, there is absolutely no need to be frustrated nor shocked by our occasional use of technology my dear. It would seem that if a couple such as yours not only make a living via technology but discuss it in your spare time it is not we who are the slaves to it. On one hand: 1. I am heavily involved with Food and Beverage as a chef and a marketing consultant. 2. I am a craftsman of wood. 3. I study quantum level neural physics 4. I am a Christian preacher 5. I do not play candy crunch/crush 6. I throw around a bunch of iron at the gym 3 days a week Now, unless I am venting, my wife is not interested in any of those subjects so she sticks to those things she is interested in: 1. Writing 2. Reading whatever she fancies 3. Gardening 4. Crochet 5. She swims and uses the treadmill at the gym 3 days a week 6. She hates candy crunch/crush Now do you see how different you, your husband and we are? In our lives, we choose only to converse when there is something significant to talk about instead of trying to entertain each other. Which is where the Kindle Fire comes in. She READS a whole host of different books and if she feels the need to discuss one of her books then I am most happy to Listen to it and comment if I like. If, when all is said and done, I wish to use the kindle, it would probably be a book concerning Quantum bio-photon entanglements or some such that she is definitely not interested in. As it is, my wife insists that we are two hermits and that's the way we like it and are happy with our life together with tech, or without. BTW........I do believe Kama Sutra is available for the Kindle and might be extremely useful for creating another type of conversation.
@Bobby Cole, as per your enumeration of your inclination and that of your wife's, I truly understand why your behavior as a couple is like that. Sorry for being judgmental because I always relate other people to myself. But as you had shown, I agree that it is better to indulge in the tablet with your hobby instead of engaging someone in a boring conversation. This reminds me of my Uncle Porfy who was a henpecked husband. His wife would be bullying him all the time simply because they live in the opposite poles of logic and knowledge. His wife has interest in Uncle's work as an architect while Uncle has no interest in Aunt's job in the Comelec. They had arguments for breakfast and dinner - because lunch is spent in the office. But they lived together until Aunt died 2 years ago.
A Kindle is simply a way to store the pages of a book. I haven't heard much about marriages being broken up due to reading before, so I don't know that it should matter whether the pages are printed on paper and bound into a book or if they are digital and accessed through a Kindle.
You gave me a good laugh with that marriage thing. But seriously, I don't think the reading is or can be a cause for a ruined marriage. That reading, whether digital or hard copy, is more of an alibi for the spouse so he wouldn't need to give attention to his partner. Pardon me @Ken Anderson if that is your style, hahahaaah. For me, I guess I still prefer the hardcopy because I want to save the health of my eyes. There is a certain glare emitted by the monitor and compared to the paper with zero glare, that's simply my point about Kindle.
I've gotten used to my Kindle Fire. Though I prefer real books, the Kindle lets me read books that are out of print for free, and in a convenient format.
I have discovered something new about my Kindle that I did not know before. Usually, I have just read books that I downloaded onto the Kindle Fire, and not done anything else with it since I have the iPad which is just a little bit larger and has the external keyboard. However, when I started reading about the moon landings (Wag the Moondoggie), it was a 7 part series of articles. Rather than read all of that with the larger and more awkward iPad, I decided to just use the Silk browser on the Kindle and then read it from there instead. To my surprise, once I found the webpage, the Kindle popped up a little picture of reading glasses and labeled "reading view". When I clicked (touched) that, the whole page changed from looking like a webpage to looking just like a book, and it was a whole lot easier to read . I am very pleased with this feature and will be using it whenever I have a webpage that has a lot of information on it that takes me a while to peruse. The more that I use the little Kindle, the better that I like it !
I noticed that Amazon has the new Kindle Fires on sale for only $35 for now, at least. That is just an awesome price,and a Kindle is just SO worth having, either as a single tablet, or as a smaller "easy-to-carry" tablet and reading device. If I were in need of another tablet; I would snap up one of these Kindles. Even the used ones on eBay are not any cheaper than this, plus it has that great Amazon warranty.
Yes, a great buy....I have had a Kindle for about 3 years and still working great!! I don't use it for books, but rather for some games and the internet..I also recently bought a 10" screen tablet for under $100..It is also in the living room with the Kindle. I use both for researching things and viewing the net. I wanted the tablet for the bigger screen and the camera..
It's interesting that both my daughters have had Kindles since they came out, but over the past year they have returned to reading real books, I am not sure why except they say they prefer them. I thought paper books may have been overtaken by electronic readers but seemingly not so.
As I feared, I don't use my Kindle Fire for reading much. While I like the fact that I can get online through its web browser, and I enjoy the Mahjong games, I have found that I am doing things with it other than reading. I might have to make a point of bringing my older Paperwhite version with me when I go to bed, and leave the Fire downstairs. Usually, I get the most reading done when I go to bed early. Rather than staying online until after midnight, sometimes I'll go to bed at 10 or 11 and read for a while before going to sleep. Now when I do that, I decided to play a game of mahjong first, and that leads to another and another, or I'll decide to check on the forum, and that's something I could have done more easily from my computer downstairs. I still don't regret getting the Kindle Fire, since it's easier getting online with my Kindle Fire than with my iPhone, and I use it to read when I'm at a restaurant or when my wife is driving, but I seldom use it to read while in bed.