So I come home one day, and there's this package sitting there. 'For you' - they say, with strange looks on their faces. I knew I hadn't ordered anything, but they insisted I open it. I was shocked. It was a Kindle! For me! The new one, with 3G (?) and Wi-Fi (??) and - well - everything! AAAHH! I have officially arrived in the 21st century! Sort of.
Now, I have to say, I was a virtual hater of all things that would be considered anti-book anything - and what I mean by that is - I love books - the actual book - the feel of it, the weight of it, the paper, the very sound of the turning page, everything. So when a gadget is out there which would take the place of books - well - that's almost sacrilegious in my book (really bad pun intended). It's like casting aside your dog or your cat in place of - say - a pillow pet. See what I mean??! But - over the last year, and after many, many trips where I filled bag after bag with hard cover and soft cover texts weighing who knows how many pounds and dragged them across the country taking up valuable living space in either the car or the RV (because you can't check out books from a library in another town and when we traveled I needed lots of stuff to read) - I thought - maybe - just maybe - at those times - only - it would be nice to just have this smallish thing that I could read lots and lots of different books from, stick it in my satchel and have reading on the go. Not that you'd actually replace actual books, mind you - but in a pinch. Now and then. For convenience. You know.
So here I sit with this - electronic device - and I read through the manual (sort of) and begin. Guess what? You can go to the internet on this thing! You can download whole entire books in like - 3 seconds! I can be on Amazon on my computer and in about 5 minutes - I can send like 11 books over to my Kindle - just like that! I can take notes (?), I can bookmark (??), I can highlight sentences (???), I can play games - (at least - someone told me you can, I, um, just haven't figured out how to do that.) . . . and I'm sure there's other stuff - I just don't even know about yet. (It's a long manual) Okay, so maybe just my big toe is in the 21st century - but hey - I'm learning - I have a Kindle! So far, I have 2 entire Bibles on there, 2 complete dictionaries, and about 50 books, of which about 45 of those were free! Yes - FREE! And now they say they are coming out with a library version - ability - app - thingy wherein you can like 'borrow' books for a small amount of time and then, well, then you - what - you pay a fee if they are 'overdue' ? Or maybe they just disappear from your Kindle after two two weeks is up . . . MMM. It is a tad bit spooky - I have to tell you. But - it's been just so fun. So amazing. I am amazed.
So thanks India and Noah. They bought this for me and I am so grateful. I really like it. A lot. And I got this bright purple case for it, so stylish, and I just feel so, so, techy. :)
Now, that doesn't mean I am done with real books. Heaven forbid!!!!!!! Nothing can replace the feel of a real book and there's nothing like a good old musty smelling library in my opinion - (especially the one in Mobridge, SD) - and you can't get every single book known to man on the Kindle - yet - but - hey - it's portable, practical - and - good for the environment - right? You know - 'save a tree, save the world' and all that . . .
Just don't mention the word 'radiation' . . .
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