I am a techie. I don't go anywhere without my Blackberry and usually my MacBook is along for the ride too. My nifty digital camera and my camcorder are recording way more of my life than anyone cares to see. These are the gifts Hubs has presented to me over the last few years once he caught on that I really love the challenge of figuring these gadgets out even if it keeps me up till the wee hours of the morning.
I am also a reader. So, since my leisure time is most often taken up by either these fun technologies or reading, it may seem that a Kindle or iPad or other online book gadget would make perfect sense for me right?
Wrong!!
The picture you see here is a magazine ad, it's not my hands. My nails never look that nice! When I turned the page in the magazine and saw this full page photo it made me wince. It's just wrong to me! And even though the ad is trying to sell me on the idea of getting thousands of books on one handy gadget, it actually turned me even more against the concept. To hold that thing up to a wonderful bookshelf of gorgeous leather bound and cloth bound books was a big mistake for this consumer! Yuck!
I am one of those readers who totally engages ALL the senses when reading a great story. (Well maybe I don't use ALL my senses, I haven't tasted them yet!) I love to buy and borrow old books from our library. I inhale deeply while opening the treasures I find in old dusty bookshops while on vacation. A few weeks ago I bought some old books just for the great colors of the covers and then felt really sad when I discovered that the pages were still uncut between them, meaning they had never been read! I am reading them.
Sometimes I find little surprises in the used books I buy. I have seen theater tickets, shopping lists and even an old photo tucked into antique books. I rub my hands over the spines of well worn books and imagine who else might have touched them decades ago. It's fun to see little underlining spots where the reader loved a certain passage or wondered about it.
I mean.....look at that picture above. Is it right and proper to read a classic like Alice In Wonderland on that piece of plastic? It's just backwards and upside down and topsy-turvey and inside-out......well, maybe it WOULD work for that particular story.
Why is this post HIGHLIGHTING the words spell-check dislikes??
You know, I'm with you...I've been looking at these readers wondering if I should get one. I love technology and new gadgets. But, the experience of reading a book, the rustle of the cover, the smell of the pages just can't be duplicated in a small electronic device.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more! My husband looked at the "Kindle" for me for Christmas, then immediately decided against it (wisely!). I DEFINITELY need to turn pages when I read!!
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