How Do You Read?

A publisher's site, http://nosycrow.com/blog/how-do-you-read, asks for feedback about whether people prefer to read books electronically or in hard copy.

My friend bought a Kindle a couple of years ago, and initially was very enthusiastic about it.

Yesterday I went with this same old friend to have lunch at The British Library.  After lunch, we browsed in the shop.  However, I noticed that, in the actual shop, she was eagerly grabbing hold of the beautifully arranged books, smoothing her hand caressingly over the pristine covers of the paperbacks,  admiring the colours, and generally acting like the books were a box of expensive chocolates which she craved and coveted.

I asked her about her current feelings about books.

She told me she was becoming tired of the Kindle.  It is so easy to download books that she has about 160 waiting to be read.  They all look the same.  There are no distinguishing covers, you can't easily go back and forth or insert notes in the margins.  They don't have a FEEL.  In short, she intends to resume her old habit of browsing in bookshops.

The Western Isles- a special place for a special birthday

This was where I spent the afternoon on my 60th birthday.  You can't drive to this beach, only walk there.  That's why it's so empty.  That and the fact that it is in the Outer Hebrides.  Perfect.

And here's another one we walked to a couple of days later - on Harris.  This beach was even further away from any road, and the walk involved a cliff climb, near vertical in one place.

We wanted to get away from it all and the Islands exceeded my wildest expectations.