Friday, September 7, 2012

Second Time Around

The hunk stood in my office doorway and announced he had nothing to read. I looked around at the six-thousand-plus tomes occupying our bookcases and sighed. I've created a monster. He only reads e-books now.

There's a good reason for that. He has reading disabilities that make it very difficult to read a print book. Reading on a large (twenty-four inch!) monitor is much easier for him.

In the past, he was a slooooow reader. Now I suspect the slowness was a function of his disability. Since I bought him a digital reader for Father's Day in June and introduced him to e-books, he's plowed through more than forty books. And I'm not talking about novellas, either. He read all of J.D. Robb's "in Death" series, three Mercedes Lackey books, a couple of others I had in my e-book library, and now he's devouring the John Sandford series.

What to do? I have almost all of them in hardback. I actually like to read a print book. Purchasing them a second time in digital just seems wrong...except he's reading...and enjoying it.

Too bad there isn't a way to get a credit for the print books you've purchased when you buy them in digital. I could go for that. In the meantime, I'll just be thrilled to death he's enjoying reading again--this second time around.

anny

3 comments:

  1. It's very cool that e-readers have helped this man discover the joy of reading.

    I have purchased some of my favorite books twice--once in paper and once as an e-book. I'm more likely to read something on my Kindle than in paper form now. The problem is I'm acquiring books and samples faster than I can read them.

    There are plenty of places where this man can find free books or borrow them. Indie authors could use his support as well.

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  2. The Gutenberg Project. The spouse has been devouring all the golden age of SF stuff on his Kindle. If it's past copyright, they likely have it for free.

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  3. Godel Escher Bach took a long time. One doesn't simply read GEB. One comprehends or fails to advance the pages. A page and then a set of pages become their own challenge.

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