In Which I Introduce Fred

 

Meet Fred.

Yes, I bought myself a Kindle! I totally splurged with my tax refund (the rest of which is going to fix a leaky roof) and bought something for me. I love to read. I'll read anything, anywhere--cereal boxes, toothpaste tubes, even advertisements on buses or buildings. I am a huge supporter of, and believer in, and user of, the public library system (thank you, Mr. Carnegie). But our public library here in the Metropolis is a lending library, not an archival library. If you like to read older books, like me, you're out of luck.

Last Memorial Day I began experimenting with audio books, listening to a Librivox recording of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell as I tore the carpet up in my living room.  I don't have any kind of MP3 player, so I listened on my laptop, which meant every time I moved from one room to another, I had to move the laptop with me. So last summer, I started looking into MP3 players, and decided that the Nano Classic, which has more memory, would be better for audio books and therefore better for me.

Then I read Anna Karenina for my book group, and realized that I am too old to hold a book as thick as this in my hands whilst trying to read in bed. 

So I started looking at the Kindle. Yes, it plays MP3 files, and Audibles.com is part of the Amazon world. And I realized that the ability to carry 1500 books with me, or listen to them, was irresistible. I resisted since last October or November, when I started looking into ebook readers. But I gave in to temptation last Friday, and it arrived Tuesday, and I love it. I love it! I love being able to make the font of what I'm reading bigger with just the press of a button and the swish of a toggle. I can read in bed again! And without the book pressed up to my nose if I'm not wearing my spectacles.

Mother of Mossy is very intrigued by the ability in increase font size. When she is snowbirding out here in the Nest, we get her large print books from the library, but their selection is eclectic at best. and the used bookstore doesn't like to buy back the large print books we buy from them. Which makes no sense in a Metropolis half populated by retired folks, but that's their decision. So, having the ability to read any book, ANY book, in large print is very appealing to her. Maybe Santa will bring her one this year.

It looks like I will go back to buying new books now, at least of my favorite authors, instead of used copies from the used bookstore. I haven't bought new books since I left the hallowed halls of the Printed Word Bookstore. They just didn't fit in the Mossy Budget. But digital books are cheaper, so the publishing world has me back as a consumer of new books. Well, they will, as soon as I get throught the hundreds of OOP books now stored on Fred. As Fred will not be taken out into the field whilst I do science, the library hasn't lost me as a patron, either.

Oh, why Fred? That was the nickname of my favorite author, E. F. Benson. I inaugurated the Kindle with reading his Miss Mapp for the 437th time. The binding on my copy is completely ripped, and the book is in twelve sections of pages, which fall apart even more every time I read it, which is once a year. Now I need never fear losing a page again.