I notice that my daughter does tend to read if - and this is very important - if I myself pick up a book in her presence. At the moment that book is Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson, so it is a damn heavy book to pick up.
As with swimming, and I bet with riding her bike at last, if Mom does it then Kid will, too. So I just have to learn to step away from the laptop and the iPad and the iPhone and the iPod and read, read, read. Those flipping pages seems to waft some magical gas in Kid's direction and before you know it, she is reading Missy, An Abandoned Kitten. She goes for books about cute animals, and yes, diabetics are not allowed to read that story. Or even look at the cover.
Here's the thing. If I were reading Quicksilver on my Kindle, which would be much more convenient and lighter, and I think it would relieve my back pain too, then my kid would not KNOW that I was reading. It would look like I was on just another device.
And, let's face it, a Kindle does more than showcase books. You can surf the Internet, play games... I had someone tell me that they use their Kindle for everything except books. I'm not judging, just saying.
As I and countless others have said, Kindles are great, but print rocks too. A print book does nothing but lie there and be a book. You can't text from it, set up a soundtrack or play Temple Run. And isn't that fantastic, in a minimalist sort of way?
I love my Kindle (which I host on my iPad) but it can't smell like parchment and old leather. It can't make that riffling sound as I look for my place. It's techie and cool, but it's not magic.
Yet.
