...that has been the question for some time now. For the last few years I have become a prolific reader, having spent my teenage years and early adulthood pursuing other interests, boys/men, mainly. Then there was alcohol, clubbing, marriage, home building, motherhood and climbing the career (such as it is) ladder (well, more recently, not so much climbing, more hanging on for grim death really)
All worthwhile pursuits, I'm sure you would agree, but, apart from the odd jackie Collins while on holiday, reading did not figure much in my life for many years.
It was not always so. I loved English at school. More than that...I was good at it. I remember very well the first time I entered my local library, having been given my first 'project' at primary school. 'Research The History of Fashion' was the monumental task my classmates and I were given, and I tackled it with gusto.
Pre Internet (pre computer! yes i am that old), Google or Ask Jeeves, my local library was the only place to research my task.
Now, back in 1970, the year of aforementioned assignment, my library already seemed musty, dated and old fashioned...but I loved it. The smell, (a sort of weird mix between old person, wet dog and dust), all those books, the small tables and chairs for me to sit, whiling my 7 year old life away looking at exciting books with Tudor dresses, Edwardian shoes, weird crinolined skirts that must have been so difficult to sit down in.....it was a whole new world to me.
Later, the delights of William Goldings 'Lord of the Flies' caught my imagination and Dickens with his weirdly names characters, I couldn't get enough of them!
As I have listed, other things filled my days until spare time, post child rearing, grew more plentyful. Now, reading is what I love to do most. I often have 2 or 3 books going at one time. The light paperback for tiresome bus journeys. The bedside read and all those Classics I missed out on but feel I should get round to reading now.
I love the smell of books, the weight of books, and I love spending hours in book shops (replacing library's which i now find intimidating and not very welcoming) So, it was with trepidation that I contemplated getting a Kindle. It made sense. Thousands of books stored in a small lightweight 'pad' Why lug around a 700 page hard back while on holiday when you get have all the books you can read in a kindle?
Of course, not all that is easy is worthwhile, dear friends. The LP vinyl record has so much more character, don't you think, than CD's?
And so was my train of thought, dear readers, for some time. That was until my lovely hubby actually bought me one.
The results, I must say, is akin to how Edison must have felt when he discovered the electric light bulb. When prehistoric man first discovered that, instead of freezing your fur lined arse off, this yellow thing you get when you strike two pieces of flint together produces something that gives you a warm glow inside, in others words, getting a kindle is a revelation, dear chums.
I LOVE IT!! The thing is....it's just so easy!!
The beautiful leather cover with dinky light attached, means that my frequent 4am luxuriating into the latest Philipa Gregory, does not get disturbed by his usual whine of "must you?" (in his most exasperated tone)
No, my midnight exploration into the weird and wonderful is conducted in illicit peace and quiet, fellow readers
So, if anyone out there is humming and hawing about getting this wonderful machine, just think...would you replace your power shower with its six headed blasts of piping hot water for a rusty old tub in front of a coal fire? Enough said....
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