Monday, August 15, 2011

Ebooks are my Friend

Techno stuff is an odd thing to get nostalgic about.
But I bet I will. 
Like most of the rest of us, I love all the techno gadgets we have today. How did people live without washing machines, mobile phones, the internet... gulp. The thought is inconceivable! 
My latest love has been ebooks. I have been purloining my husbands ipad to access his ebooks and kindle applications. 
This allows me to wallow in nostalgia as I re-visit the best loved books of my childhood. So far I have downloaded all of the 'Anne' books by L.M Montgomery and a book for my mum (Harding's Luck be E. Nesbitt) that she had been unable to find hardcopy.
I  have also spent a very happy evening curled up with the glow of the ipad re-reading Little Lord Fauntleroy.
Because these books are out of copyright - they have all been free - which is a not inconsiderable bonus.
I've also brought several recent books I've been hanging out for. Malcolm Gladwells 'Outliers' was simply brilliant - the autobiography of the Yellow Wiggles guy... dissapointing. 
The ease and convenience of ordering both- unsurpassed. A little click and voila - there in bed with you or in your living room, is the desired item. 
The temptation factor... hmmm. Let's not go there.  
I have my eye on a 700 page biography of L. M. Montgomery (author of Anne of Green Gables among other works) which I know will delight, inspire and probably depress me. 
I know I am late on the scene of ebooks - but I am in love. 
Already I am salivating at diving into all the old classics. About handing over a techno-book of some description to my kids stocked with The Wind in the Willows and Homers Odyssey and ten thousand other classics from the dawn of writing until... hey, 70 odd years ago, give or take! I might finally get around to reading Lord Chestertons Letters to his Son.
These books do not need storage space. (ie. no bookshelves for the Sprocket to use as a ladder and the Poppet to carefully void of books) 
They will not incur library fines when they are 'posted' behind the fridge and lost. They cannot be torn or drawn upon. They will not form tottering, unsteady piles along the walls of my postage-stamp sized home.
I will depart. 
I have washing to battle with and... ahem... books to download...

No comments:

Post a Comment