Those of you who are well acquainted with my technology dyslexia will be very surprised by my most recent acquisition: I am now the proud owner of an e-reader. The method to my madness was to have a mechanism to deliver enough English language books to meet my reading needs during a two week vacation in a country that does not even use the Latin alphabet let alone speak any derivative of the aforementioned dead language. It was my book famine insurance policy.
As you know, there are two types of people – those that divide the world into two types of people, and those that don’t. I am one of those that does. And I am also one of those who belongs to the type that plans ahead. This means I needed to make sure I knew how to use my virtual library well in advance of my trip, including how to load books and recharge the device. A Hurculean task for someone as feeble as me. I did muddle through and despite losing the tether cable to my computer within the first hour of ownership, I managed to load a few books and borrow some from the library. That’s when I discovered what I had been missing all along. Here’s why I am now a fan of the e-reader.
• I can hold it in one hand instead of using my other hand to hold the book open. This will come in very handy at the cottage when my other hand is busy holding up my gin and tonic, although I have not yet tested whether or not a cold finger works when touching the screen to change the virtual page. Note to self: further preparation and experimentation required before full implementation of this innovation.
• When I put the book down it nicely goes to sleep and awakes (fairly) nicely when it is ready to be read again. No need for a book mark – it already knows what ‘page’ you left and is serving it up at your command. I am not sure what happens if it loses its power reserve in the interim. Note to self: some tough love is in order. Leave the Kobo in the car for a few days and see if its memory survives. Or better still, leave it at work for a few days and see if its memory survives.
• It fits easily in any bag. Normally, I would need to reserve luggage space for paperbacks to be discarded on the journey. Now (unless my device fails me en route, in which case you will be reading an entirely different post in a month), all I need to do is bring one slim and charmingly basic black quilted booklet. Note to self: pack contingency books.