{"id":1268,"date":"2010-11-11T18:57:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T23:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=1268"},"modified":"2010-11-11T18:57:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-11T23:57:00","slug":"my-new-toy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/reading\/my-new-toy\/","title":{"rendered":"My New Toy"},"content":{"rendered":"

My greatest fear is not the dark, or enclosed places or even spiders. It’s being trapped somewhere with nothing to read.<\/p>\n

It happened to me once. On a delayed flight, I finished the book I was reading half way into a four hour journey. I started prowling the aisles, looking for any newspapers or magazines I could ‘borrow’ until we landed. I hated it (and I imagine my fellow passengers were a bit concerned too).<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
My new Kindle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That’s never going to happen to me again – thanks to my new toy.<\/p>\n

Isn’t it nice?<\/p>\n

I had promised myself that my first major expenditure here in NYC would be an e-reader (well, apart from the black boots and the gorgeous leopard-print kitten heels – but they hardly count).<\/p>\n

I looked at several before deciding on a Kindle. On all of them, I found the page quite easy to read, but the way the page turns varied from reader to reader. It’s not that I like the way the Kindle turns the page – but I find it less distracting than some of the others.<\/p>\n

The first thing I did when it was delivered was take advantage of all the free downloads of out-of-copyright classics. I loaded Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde; Jules Verne and HG Wells. I have the Three Musketeers and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I’ll never be caught bookless again. In fact, I’m heading off on a business trip today – and instead of straining my back with half a suitcase of heavy paperbacks, I’m just taking the Kindle.<\/p>\n

I feel positively naked, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. And there is the added advantage that the suitcase now has room for that extra pair of shoes.<\/p>\n

That’s not to say I have given up ‘real’ books. No way! Yesterday I was at Strand Books in Greenwich Village. Wow! They advertise themselves as having 18 miles of books and I can well believe it.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Strand<\/a><\/dt>\n
Strand Books<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

It was almost overwhelming. Not only do the have a great fiction section – they have floors – yes FLOORS – of non fiction. It’s like a maze of bookshelves, far too tall for someone my height to see what’s on the top shelf – but there are ladders. You could get lost in there… and that wouldn’t exactly be a bad thing. In just a few minutes browsing, I found so much research material I wanted to read. I was too scared to look at their rare and out-of-print section. My credit card was already whimpering.<\/p>\n

But I will be back. Oh yes, because great as the e-reader is, nothing in the world compares to the feel and smell of a real book.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My greatest fear is not the dark, or enclosed places or even spiders. It’s being trapped somewhere with nothing to read. It happened to me once. On a delayed flight, I finished…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}