KINDLE July 18 2011 Thanks to Bobby & Daphne, who showed me the way

July 18 2011

 My thanks to Bobby and Daphne for showing me the way.

I have loved books since I discovered them at the age of 6. Dick and Jane first. I had my first library card when I was 8 and visited the library almost every day. By eighth grade I had read every book in the school library, including The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham. I read this furtively, sure that none of the adults knew it was part of the collection. After I returned it, it disappeared from the shelves.

Later, there were always libraries within walking distance and I carried armloads of books out on every trip, usually once a week. I had schoolwork too.

At Brown Branch, in Irvington, I discovered The New Yorker. I read dozens of issues, for the stories mostly, but I read them cover to cover. That was when I thought maybe I could learn to write stories like these. I had visions of selling stories and making lots of money and becoming famous. Being a famous writer seemed to me to be the epitome of success.

I remembered the Little Women series and how fascinated I had been with Jo, the sister who wrote and sold her stories in secret to make money to help the family. At the age of 10 I adulated Jo. I wanted to be her.

At times I made lists of what I had read, but there were too many books and when I realized I could never catch up on what had already published and then read all the new books that were published every year, I gave up the lists and just read.

It reached the point where I always had a book with me, everywhere; school, bedroom, in the car, on the bus, in the bathroom, at meals, at a friend's house, at the swimming pool, at the movies, seriously. When I was 18 and took flying lessons, I had a book with me in the small TriPacer plane when we were in the air. (I never read while I was learning to fly, but I felt secure because I knew that if we crashed, I would have something to read while we waited for rescue.)

It never occurred to me I would be unable to read, although I knew from the beginning that blindness, and the resulting inability to read, would be the worst ting that could ever happen to me. I couldn't imagine living without books.

This went on for a lifetime.

When I was 56 I had cataracts removed and interocular lenses put in both eyes. This resulted in wonderful far vision, but my ability to read, holding the book close to my face, without glasses, had gone with my natural cloudy lenses. (I had been nearsighted since I was six, or perhaps earlier, but could always see up close.) Now I needed glasses to read.

I adapted, got used to carrying reading glasses along with my book where ever I went. Several years, maybe 15, passed this way.

Later the glasses didn't do the job. The print in books varied, I had floaters in my eyes, neither my distance vision glasses, my continuous vision glasses, nor my reading glasses served well. Reading was a physical chore. But, as with any addiction, I had to have it. So I struggled on, squinting, using brighter lights, selecting large print books when possible. I couldn't give up reading, but the pure joy was gone. In many public places there was not enough light, given my faltering eyesight, to read. I thought about suicide. Without books my life was a void.

When the Kindle first came out I was excited, maybe this could work. But after inspecting the first edition and reading reviews by readers, I realized it wouldn't do the trick. It was like reading on a computer screen, a horrible experience for me, making my eyes water and my head ache.

And, I always insisted, I loved the heft of a book in my hands, the smell of the paper, however moldy or smelly or dotted with meals of previous readers. (Committed readers are a messy lot, eating, drinking, smoking and dropping all of the above onto the pages.) So I struggled on, resisting suggestions that I try the newest technology.

Last year, however, at Bobby and Daphne's house in Atlanta, I had the opportunity to try out the newest Kindle for several days.

It was like magic. The screen wasn't lit from behind, like a computer screen, but depended on ambient light to reading. A book cover/holder was available too, that had a built in book light. It worked.

So on an impulse, I bought a Kindle.

I was in the process of returning to Costa Rica and establishing a new apartment in San Jose. I was busy. So the Kindle sat unused for months. When I finally got around to trying it, I had trouble connecting it to the internet. Eventually, with Bobby's help, I had it up and running.

The next obstacle was my cheap side. When Kindle first came out, the books available were much less expensive than real paper and print books. As well they should be,m I thought at the time.

Now, however, they cost almost as much as the books in the bookstore or on line. Library books, my main source of supply for most of my life, had been free. It was next to impossible for me to pay ten or twelve bucks for an online ebook.

So, I shopped for all the free books. Most of these were amateur productions and not well written. Many were out of print and ancient and boring. Some were not bad, but very short.

Finally I broke down and bought a book I would have bought in a book store before, one that I would enjoy.

It was wonderful, a revelation.

On my Kindle, the font size is adjustable, so I can make the letters big enough to read without glasses. The page turner is a press lever on the side so there is no balancing of heavy books, no dropping of paperbacks while I try to eat while reading, no extra bright light bulb necessary.

Since this discovery, I have justified buying ebooks by saying...this is one of my biggest pleasures in life, I am old and what am I saving book money for, and, when or if I move, or go on a trip, I can carry my whole book collection in one hand or in my purse or backpack.

The downloads take maybe 30 seconds and I am ready to read.

Think of all the gasoline saved by not driving from one store to another looking for a particular book or magazine. Think of the world of literature—and trash-- waiting for me out there.