My birthday present

I am trying to think long term in my present requests, things which may be useful for years, things which may be easy to transport, and yet will add richness to my life rather than being boring or a burden. With this in mind, I'm pretty pleased with this year's birthday present. You may wonder why I am writing about it now, instead of six weeks ago when I first got it, but as with some things the initial excitement needs to develop into familiarity before it can properly be valued by myself and others.

My precious e-book reader is the one item I commented to my Mum about as I was packing to leave a few weeks ago. It was the only item whose absence would definitely involve tears - my tears - after leaving home again. I have spent several wonderful hours online finding books to send to my e-reader, then precious moments deciding how to organise the books. In fact I just spent another couple of hours online last night, acquiring the rest of the collection of books by Edith Nesbit - all free!

My favourite things about my e-reader:

• it weighs so little yet carries so many books!
• I do not need bookmarks, as this wonderful device remembers which page I was up to in EACH book I have started reading!
• it does not have a touch screen AND it has a keyboard, which means it stays clean longer. (Hopefully!)
• I can drink a cup of tea and turn pages at the SAME TIME!!
• now I have a cover for it, it even looks a bit more like a book!
• it can read pdfs, so in theory I could read some things I or other people I know have written (it just may need to be in a small enough format or large enough font to be easy to read)
•  so many classic books are available for FREE or very low cost
• if for any reason I were to lose or damage my e-reader, I could recover the books I bought!

And yet, I still find it thoroughly satisfying to read a physically printed and bound book. And the physical copies are much easier to lend. I felt terrible about the fact that my little sister couldn't finish reading a book because the only copy I have of it is on my e-reader, and therefore in another state from her. Thankfully, I had a book by the same author (Edith Nesbit, actually!) which she could read while I'm away. And now I have a free copy of the book I left with her here with me! Such a strange feeling!

The down side is how many physical books I have at home - how am I ever to replace such a collection! And it is so much easier to choose a new book to read when you can read the blurb and see the cover. Easier too to know which number the book is in the series!

But developing a large electronic collection will be thoroughly satisfying!