kobo

I bought a Kobo.

This may possibly have not been the time to buy an e-reader, given that my entire life might change in the next few weeks, but I am flying to the Mitten this week as part of my commitment to spend more time with my family (inspired by deaths 1, 2, and 3 in November/December). 

I cannot fly without reading material. It just is not possible. I understand that people do things like sleep and watch movies while they fly, but I mostly just read.

Okay, I mostly just read all the time. I can hardly be bothered to start a tv show unless I really love it (eh-hem, Fringe, now over, sob). I read while I brush my teeth. I read while I curl my hair. I read while I drink my chai. I read while I bake, sometimes with the bowl in front of my book or computer. 

I was at a party last week where a woman was talking about teaching social skills to kids on the autism spectrum, and she was saying that one of the kids she works with is so addicted to reading that he cannot even go to the bathroom without a book.

Um.

I don't actually see the problem.

I mean, I get that there is a grossness factor - I certainly would not expect a person to wipe and then immediately pick the book back up with the same hand; THIS IS WHY PEOPLE HAVE TWO HANDS, so one can hold a book and the other can perform basic life tasks and then you can wash both of them - but my books spend fully half their time on my bathroom counter. My hairbrush is used more often for propping books open than for brushing my hair. 

I fully get this kid. In my opinion, all he needs is some good hygiene and a book stand in the bathroom. Problem solved.

So anyway, you can see why a day of traveling to the Mitten is just not possible without reading material. I would not survive.

More to the point, I would bring two or three library books in my (now all carry on, although apparently I am now a Premier Silver member on Un1ted and can get a free checked in bag) luggage, and then in the airport I would make a beeline for the nearest bookstore and buy a couple more, and then I would end up dragging five or six books back from Michigan, which I tried last time, and we all remember how that went.

I have finally come to accept that my gimpy arms are going to continue to cost me money for the entirety of my life. They are a disability, and and they aren't going away. (The gimpiness nor the arms. I would be glad to lose the former, but I would like to keep the latter. They do work most of the time.) Fortunately, they are a very minor disability, and not the sort of disability that interferes with my ability to do my chosen profession, but they are going to continue to cost me money spent on things like an e-reader with which to travel, because I just cannot carry all the books I need to entertain me without pain and gnashing of teeth. (I used to just travel with a couple of books and read them over and over, but the discovery of the hold shelf at the library has ruined me. Also goodreads.com. There are just so many books out there!)

I went to a big box store last night to just take a look at the Kobos, which I like because you can buy your books through an independent bookseller (also: not @m@zon), and lo! They had one Kobo mini remaining, and it was on sale, and I bought it. I don't actually know if I will like reading on an e-reader (so far, it is so much better than reading on an iPad with a back-lit screen), so it seemed like a good idea to start small (cheap) and maybe upgrade later if/when I know that I like it and if/when my future is a little more certain.

For now, I am still reading paper books (the flow of them from the library has not eased), except when I read a few pages on the Kobo just to admire it and stare at it affectionately. So small! So light! So full of free public domain books!

I am already fantasizing about the lightness of my carry on next week.