As the family well knows, I love to read books.  I have always been a book reader since a kid and even when I had a busy life.  I currently read between 50 and 60 books a year.  Granted not that spectacular I suspect to some, but more than most people.

I love to open a book and savour the opening line that is the true sign if the author is serious in his or her craft.  It was a dark and stormy night……….

A few years ago my Brother-in-law Ralph was showing off his Kindle and telling me this was the way to go.  My kids told me the same thing as did other friends, but I stayed true to the proper tradition of paper and print.  Then I bought an IPad.  Now the family knows we bought it to replace the Sonos hand controller not as a reader.  As it turned out we did not need it for that role and I started experimenting with the Apps that have taken the world by storm.  Who of my generation, knew you could point it at the sky and recognize planes flying by or constellations?  Who knew your could point this thing at a scene, take a picture and immediately email to the family?  Who knew that Angry Birds could teach you hand-eye coordination?

In one major development I received and then purchased some books that I could read with this device.  At first reluctant to give up the texture of paper and physically turning the page, I became enthralled.  A device no thicker than a small cutting board .  Just touch the right hand of the screen and there is the new page.  Just go to the library and there are 80 books just waiting for me (I have added a few)  Furthermore there is instant access to the internet with only a button push away to look up terms or pictures referred to in the novel that in the past you only shrugged and said “whatever that is”.

Over the last year it has been practically the only way I read books.

However today I decided to start reading the Ken Follett trilogy starting with Fall of Giants.  I have been waiting to start this for some time. Without a doubt my favorite book of all time was his ‘Pillars of the Earth’ .  I was given a hard copy of the Fall of Giants book as a gift from my family some time ago.

So I am lying in bed last night propping up this tomb of a book (1000 pages) on my chest and wondering how people managed to read these heavy things over the last 1000 years.  Furthermore I have to have a night light on and I could easily get paper cuts from the pages.  Going to be hard to tell my great grandchildren the joy of reading an actual book.  Hope it does not fall over on me if I nod off and crush me.