Hard Back, Paperback or E...PO Day 62

I suppose I could be called a Luddite when it comes to reading for enjoyment and entertainment.

 I love a good book. By that I mean a good hardback book. I might not choose a book by its cover but weight can be a deciding factor. A hefty tome two and a half pounds will always win out over a slim lightweight of 14 ounces. Who wants the reading relationship to end just as the story gets going? Give me a saga, an epic, a 463 page chronicle that keeps me awake long into the night. The best book is one with a mysterious past; a prior reader has dog-eared a page or underlined an especially moving passage. Better yet is the gift inscription in the front of an old book, the more mysterious, romantic or sinister the better. A hardback book can be lent to a friend never to be seen again or settle in on your bookshelf to be reread years later when you discover it like an old sweetheart you run into on the street.

Paperback books are strictly a beach accessory, tucked in with the sunscreen and bottle of water. They are convenient and expendable. A half finished paperback accidentally left on the nightstand of your friends' summer cottage will not merit  a trip to the post office to return it. In fact, their opinion of your literary acumen will likely suffer even if the title is Middlemarch. They will only notice the curled corners of the cover, the loose leaves including the title page that flutter out, and the addendum at the back recommending a variety of crime novels by the same publisher. (Remember the fitted cloth covers that came along in the seventies to hide the suggestive picture on the front of the summer best selling romance?)

And now we are reading E books. Even I am reading E books. What does this have to do with
recovering from rTSA? In the middle of the night confined to a hospital bed, when every television
channel is an infomercial, you can shop Amazon for the latest best seller. When the IV line will not
reach as far as your purse and you've already buzzed the night nurse three times, you can download
great classics from free e-book websites. Balancing a tablet or iPad on your lap is easier when your right arm is constrained in a sling and your left hand has an IV sticking out of it pinging you every time it is moved. If the light over your bedroom  is reminiscent of a B movie interrogation scene, the soft glow of the iPad screen is all you need to read by and even makes a pretty good flash light if turned facing out when you've lost your glasses in the covers.

An E book doesn't smell or feel like a hardback book, it can't be shared or shown off on your coffee table, it doesn't lay on your bed stand inviting you to join it at night. But, like all modern technology, once you have made the leap, there may be no going back.