Reading Between The Irony

I purchased my Sony Digital Reader Pocket Edition (PRS300SC) with 5" Screen - Silver last winter using some cash I picked up teaching Safety Procedures classes for my school district.  It isn't a top 'o the line gizmo or anything, but I liked it well enough.  In fact, I even recommended it to my Cheerful Teaching Assistant since I knew she was in the market for such a device.  Frankly, I didn't think she'd go for it what with wanting a Kindle 3G Wireless Reading Device, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 3G Works Globally, White, 6" Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology so badly, but she ended up purchasing the pink version of my own device.

We were happy and life was good.  For a while at least...

Then, tragedy struck.  I crashed my laptop and couldn't use my tethered reader unless I wanted to just keep reading the same stuff that was already on there over and over and over.  The CTA left her reader behind while on vacation and didn't even have the old stuff available to her anymore.  We were thrown back to the ancient practice of turning pages.  Somehow, we both managed to survive.  But it was a dark time.

Finally, the CTA decided that this was a sign from the fates that she was really meant to own the Kindle all along and went ahead with the purchase.  It arrived, complete with a fancy decorative skin and she happily settled back into the digital age.  I observed this from across the classroom and realized that I was in trouble.  It was shiny, it was slick, it had WiFi.  I was enamoured.

I needed to do something quick.  Christmas is breathing down my neck and there is a limit to how many handknits you can give.  Ditto for "Hug" coupons.  Furthermore, the mechanics are predicting dire things if I do not purchase four new tires some time in the immediate future.  If drastic action wasn't taken, it was very likely I might succumb to the siren song of wireless reading devices. 

I did what I had to do.  I rummaged around in the depths of the closet and dragged out the old IBM ThinkPad.  I plugged it in, forced it to accept an internet connection against its violent protests and introduced it to my little ereader.  Software was downloaded and I was back in the game.

Not happily, mind you.  I hate the old laptop.  It is clunky and slow and it is the sort of thing you pass on to your grandmother so she can get email.  Not that it matters.  She won't use it.  She will call it a contraption and recall how her friend Ida's son was arrested because he clicked the wrong thing and ended up getting porn while the government was monitoring his machine.  She will not understand wireless and fear the radio waves she is now inviting into her home.  She will call you sixteen times a day because she can't make the dad-gummed thing work or figure out where you insert the sheet of paper.

I am NOT a grandmother.  I am a young and vibrant woman with the technical savvy to crash a MacBook Pro all by myself, thankyouverymuch!!!!!!!!  I should not be subjected to this given my level of computing experience.  And now I'm all worked up.  I'm going to need my pill. Where's that bottle?  And will somebody PLEASE tell me why they put the lids on so tight and when they started making the print on the label so danged small????

But I digress...I'm fairly certain I was going somewhere with this.  Oh, that's right!  The tale of the ereaders! 

So here's where we stand:

The CTA has her Kindle.  However, she has confessed to me that she truly misses her little pink Sony with its simple, no-frills approach to reading.  She liked the way it felt in her hand and how easy it was to navigate without all the bells and whistles.  I, on the other hand, have moved heaven and earth (not to mention taken several steps backwards computer-wise) in order to reconnect with the very same reader my friend so misses, yet still can't help but think hers is way cooler.

I suppose that, in a perfect world, we could just swap them and carry on with our lives.  But it is never really that simple.  Our tastes in books aren't exactly the same and I'd hate to lose my entire library as much as she would miss the one she is currently rebuilding. And neither of us is so unhappy with our reader that we are ready to fling ourselves into an endless abyss.  Besides, it's taken a great deal of emotional effort for us to get to where we be at the moment.  I can't speak for the CTA, but I don't have the energy for much more in the way of change.  I'm just happy to have my reader back up and running. 

It is, however, ironic. Great story material what with all the angst and whatnot.  We should write a book about it.  Maybe even publish it digitally...

SA