I have become quite technology heavy. I use quite a bit of technology in the classroom just in the process of my teaching (i.e., two computers, one projector, one Mimeo, one iPad, scanner, digital cameras [still and video], and loads of advanced software. Don’t even ask what I have my students working on). At home, well, minus the projector and add one e-reader, and a couple of more computers, and that will be close to how technology bound I am. Of course, some of it is not new tech (I take real good care of my stuff), but it’s in active use. Oops, forgot the phones.
My point is this. I have owned an e-reader for more than a year now and my mother-in-law wished to get one. We talked about mine and the ones she was considering (I took more than a year to make my decision, she took about the same). Now we both have e-readers, different brands, and find we quite like reading e-books. It doesn’t really matter which one you get as long as you can read the way you want to. I have checked out quite a number of blogs on e-readers, and really if you want it to reduce the amount of books you have in your house (this was the main selling point that got my husband onto pushing me to buy an e-reader) than any crisp-screened reader will meet your needs. The rest is just bells and whistles with attendant price tags.
This week my mother-in-law gave me her copy of The Help in paperback. She enjoyed it and thought I might like it. She bought it before she purchased her e-reader. I felt much at home leaning back on the daybed in our computer room holding that book in my hands. It felt good, so maybe holding a hardback or paperback has some pull yet with me, and it is an entertaining book, but she has never given away a book to me before. The Help is a big book, and it is going to take up space, which may be what prompted her to share. I know she won’t be handing me her Kindle anytime soon, and I am not lending out my Sony either. But I think I can shift back and forth between my pencil, pen, keyboard, tablet, paperbacks, e-books, transparencies, and projectors with comfort for some time to come, and there is probably a little space yet left on my bookcase in the hallway.
 |
| see-saw |
