Kindling

Christmas 2009

I couldn't remember the last time I was surprised on Christmas morning, until Christmas 2009. At some point during each of the last few holiday seasons I overheard my mom talking to someone on the phone saying something like, "this year I decided to just give the kids money." Which is fine, I suppose. While part of me wished I could be surprised on Christmas morning, most of me was just amused that each year she would act like this was some new thing; the fact of the matter is overhearing this conversation had become somewhat of a holiday tradition for me. But this year I was surprised. There were no conversations to overhear and my mom was surprisingly tightlipped about the gifts. She even refused to let me in when she was wrapping gifts. Needless to say, I was excited... and nervous. What if she thought she picked out the perfect gift but got me one of these?

Instead, she--with the help of my sister--got me a Kindle DX.

E-Readers

I have been thinking about E-Readers for sometime. My objections to them were the same as everyone else's and ran something like this:

"But I love the experience of holding a book!"

"I love the smell of the pages!"

"I love having a personal interaction with printed page!"

"Books are just more genuine, more real!"

"I love to underline and write in my book!"

I got over the first four objections pretty easily. Sure I like books as objects, I collect old science fiction books and I would not want to get rid of them. But I also like vinyl records. And I also like printed photographs. The point is that having a kindle doesn't mean I can't still collect books, actually it means I can focus on only collecting the books I actually want to own.

But the last objection was a serious one because I read for a living, I need to be able to mark and highlight. The kindle does that. And does it better than a book. And it allows me to search my notes and the book.

So this semester I have been reading as many of my school books as I can on my kindle, and I've loved it.

But the greatest thing about the kindle is its screen. It is not backlit, so it looks like paper and it doesn't strain your eyes like a computer screen does.

I like to make things

So I made my kindle a cover out of a book I found at a thrift store.

A microfiber cloth acts as a screen protector/cleaner. It still needs to be hemmed along the bottom edge.

Securing the kindle to the cover was the tricky part. I debated different options such as elastic straps, but those proved both too tricky and too unreliable. I settled on these. "These" are picture hanging strips. They keep the kindle firmly in place but they come off rather easily without leaving a residue if I ever decide I don't want them.