Plastic books

I am an avid reader. I love reading and always have done. I can remember getting ready to go on holiday as a child and the most important item to pack was my book. Yes, I am a bookworm. I am never without a book. I love the smell of a new book and I love the feel of an old book. Snuggling up with a book at night, reading a long, tiresome train journey away or snatching a page or two while making the dinner – you really can’t beat it.

So now I find myself faced with the ever popular “e-reader”. I can’t imagine doing most of those things with a piece of rectangular plastic; I feel it has no character. I appreciate the convenience factor and the modernity of these e-readers, but I would miss the presence of an actual book in my hands. The sore, tired hands that come with holding up the big hardbacks that I can’t put down and the creak in the neck from sitting in the reading position for too long with a good book are all very inconvenient I know, and I’m sure the very argument for these devices, but they are a very important part of my life. I’m not ready to give up to technology quite yet.

My pet budgie has a very endearing, but sometimes annoying, habit of perching on the top of my book while I read and nibbling away at the the pages. I certainly wouldn’t want to deprive him of that pleasure although recently he has forsaken his book chewing for watching other budgies on YouTube on my son’s mobile. The budgie is probably more techno bound than me, but I’m sticking with my pages.