Crying Uncle

by cindy

Or

How the Embrace of Technology Has Made Me Lazy

Before I share this little tale with you, please understand that this is in no way meant to be an endorsement of one type of e-Reader over another. It so happens that I was given an iPad 1 a few years ago by Dear Dave who probably was feeling guilty about one thing or another. That’s not quite true: he just likes to surprise me from time to time. I mean, as long as we’ve been together, it would be a lot to remember every birthday, right? And I’ll take the surprises with or without any ulterior motives whatsoever, hon! Really!

So, anyway, our story begins when I am lent a paperback book. An honest-to-God book. Made of paper. Dog-eared pages. Split spine. Lovingly read by another first and passed along for others to enjoy. I saved the book to read while I was in the hospital post-surgery. I figured reading a paperback in that setting would be a little less problematic than reading my iPad which could be dropped…or lost…or stuff.

Of course, as it turned out, I was not in the hospital long, nor was I even bed-bound for long once I returned home, but I persisted in my plans to read this paperback book. I decided I was a-gonna read it all the way through in this original form—paper—if for no other reason than for old-times-sake.

Like Goldilocks in that fairy tale about finding the right bed, though my locks are short and not at all golden, I had one helluva time reading the book with any measure of comfort. The print was too small. The font was too thin and faint, making my glasses a necessity. And that meant remembering to remove said glasses before falling asleep in the middle of the chapter. Of course, the bedside light had to be in use, too. No reading in the dark for this story! Oy! The work involved in reading this book!! And those pages. Those pages kept flippin’ themselves over. They flipped and flopped and MADE ME LOSE MY PLACE. A lot. Oh, the indignity of it all.

I soldiered on.

And on.

I actually fantasized about being able to share this book with someone else, which, I think, is the one and only disadvantage to e-books. A disadvantage I think I can live with, by the by.

Then it happened. With lights a-blazing, eye glasses perched on my nose, pages gripped tightly in both hands, and my brain completely engrossed in the story, I realized that as I finished reading the last words at the end of the page, preparing to turn it, my index finger was automatically tap tap tapping, TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP! and nothing was happening. The iPad always turns the page when I tap the side! What the????

Call me crazy, call me lazy, but that was the final blow. The “struggle” to read this paperback book ended when I downloaded a copy of it onto my iPad. And my iPad, the e-book and I lived happily ever after.

The End.