The eco-benefits of e-books

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One of my favorite memories of childhood was going to the library with my mom. As soon as we walked in, I could smell the books.

It wasn't something we got to do often, which made it even more special. I loved and still love being surrounded by books.

In the first five years or so my husband and I were married, the two of us could easily drop $100 at Borders or Barnes and Noble or Books-a-Million in a single afternoon. There was nothing like roaming through the stacks and finding an author or title that you hadn't heard of before but still piques your interest.

Online book retailers have never held the same magic for me. There is no equivalent for finding your next read by accident because the color or title or font on a dust jacket just happened to catch your eye.

And then there's the joy of being able to flip through to see how many pages you have left in a chapter. Hitting the "Next" button on your e-reader just isn't the same.

My daughter helped usher in the e-reading age for me. Her arrival in August 2011 made me more mindful of how much my husband and I spent on books and how much space in our tiny home is dedicated to paperbacks and hard covers.

So my reading habits have become a lot more tree-friendly in the last several years. It happened more out of necessity than out of a concern for our planet, but however it came about, I'm a more eco-friendly reader these days.
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