Dear Kindle, I Love My Paper

I didn't want and didn't get a Kindle for Christmas. My former mother-in-law wasn't so lucky.

She didn't want one, but she got one.

My ex-hubby, who gave her Amazon's wonder product, is still laughing. He thinks it's all about age and says he's enjoyed "watching her struggle" to master the third-generation electronic reader. I defended the woman, as I always will a fellow reader and book lover. Notice how that's no longer redundant. (Before I continue, said ex-MIL is no luddite. If she wants to read an LCD screen, she'll manage.)

And that distinction - that you can love to read and have no affinity for the printed word - may save newspapers, the (possibly-in-need-of-a-new-name) publishing industry, and life as we (who cut our teeth on board books) know it.

My daughter, and too many of her Facebook peers, professes to "hate" reading. I hope that's a miscommunication, that they really loathe the form - OMG! my mother reads books - and not the function. That is, the reading.

Once again, I'm a tweener. While I'm tech-savvy enough to conduct my own Facebook research, thank you, my life-long love of books won't easily translate to the pixelated page. Paper feels good. Smells. Not always good, but it's a smell. It's real. Ink can smudge. In short, reading hints at being alive. It's really, really, really personal. Sure you can make notes in the margin of a Kindle. But you can't dog-ear the pages. And what about the bookmark, like a steady hand guiding me through the rough passages, patiently holding my place while I'm away?

I'm realistic enough to accept/smart enough to be thrilled by digital accessibility. Libraries are jumping on Kindle (and competitors) as well they should.

But reading the Sunday paper at the breakfast table, its form changing as it follows me throughout the day, is a joy I won't abandon anytime soon. I don't need batteries or a protective case for The Plain Dealer. In fact, those as-yet-unread sections I carry can protect me from a sudden shower, dirty dog, or unwanted conversation. As opposed to Kindle, which at that cute toddler stage only invites chitchat.

Yesterday, I lingered over coffee while marveling at the optimism of building a $33 million aquarium downtown, read Terry Pluto's wonderful column on Jesus's messed-up family in the car, and toted the Arts Section (with its book reviews!!) to the evening's soccer game. Sure, I could have taken Kindle along. But the paper is so much...softer. Sweeter. Pulpier.

But pulp free progress marches on. Perhaps some of us will acquiesce and turn to the shiny reader as early as this month. Thanks to the International Consumer Electronics Show, which starts Thursday, the price is sure to drop on Kindles and all electronic readers (as well as the uber-cool iPad).

Til then - at least - the books are piling up on my nightstand. Which is exactly how I like it. Thank you, dear friends and fellow readers, for not giving me a Kindle. Just yet.

Please support libraries and your local booksellers in 2011.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stumbling Over Smart Guys and Trendsetters

Charles Murray's Opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, For Most People, College is a Waste of Time, is worth a read. Somebody, get this guy on a committee to reform education...and quick.

And I stumbled on this blog entry today - yeah, it's almost eight months old - and thought, yep, he's right: the iPhone and iTouch could replace a lot of retail sales people. (Sorry, guys.)

Then I thought, wait a minute. The technology I use isn't working quite so well. I subscribe to a couple of "trendspotting" newsletters, one RSS feed, and have three different Google Alert settings, yet I literally stumbled across these articles.

Sigh. See, this is why I like to keep track of my favorite reading material. Nobody else is really doing it for me...

Confessions of a Bag Lady

I love reading - books, magazines, newsletters, press releases, you name it, I read almost everything (except recipes). I guess I'm an optimist, as I typically check out more books than I can read and order more magazines and newspapers than I can digest. So, I'm trying like the dickens to read all my old periodicals before the new year and new reading resolutions take hold. That's right, I'm a bag lady.

I tote magazines, books, newspaper clippings, and other stuff in a canvas bag anywhere I think I might have a chance to read. This week, the dentist's office.

There I really got into a Newsweek article (from OCTOBER! How embarrassing!) about how killing germs may be killing us, and another about campaign reform. I also enjoyed one from the Columbus Dispatch about a restoration of an old airplane recently underway in Urbana.

Maybe you're catching up, too? Let me know...

Meanwhile, no books for me until I'm done with about five pounds of magazines including Scientific American, National Geographic, Design News, Discover... and a New Year's resolution to read them rather than pile them up. (Who knows? Someday I may be looking for a new use for my magazine racks!)