Day 41

I've been loading books on my Kindle and reading a bit more than I used to. I hate to say it, but eBook is really convenient, especially for a guy like me who a) hates to bring books everywhere he goes, b) is a slow reader, and c) likes to put down books and pick them up again later, switching among them, but often forgets which book he was reading and where he's left off.

This is not an advertisement for the Kindle or any eBook readers. Just that the K fits my reading needs much better than regular books. I still miss the textile look and feel of a real book, but as far as "reading" is concerned, I don't miss them. For one thing, many have small prints -- at my ripe old age, it's harder and harder to read print without wearing reading glasses. With an eBook reader, I can change the font to really BIG -- easy on my eyes. Second, the bookmark, "go to location" and "last location" features are great for me to get back to exactly where I want to go. Then the "recent read" feature allows me to know which books I've been reading, and that makes switching among them simple.

Not to mention the Kindle accepts regular documents (DOC, RTF, PDF, etc.) so I can send my manuscripts and read them like a book (instead of a computer screen). That's awesome for a writer like me. To make it better, the Kindle also has text-to-speech feature; that makes "editing" an easier task because I do catch errors when I "hear" the book instead of reading it. This weekend I copied and pasted about 200 pages of material from a writing contest so I could take and read them anywhere I go (to the cafe, the theater, the couch). Awesome convenience. I can so see why agents and editors are adopting the technology with eager arms -- it truly can make their jobs so much easier.

200 words, 17200 words total
324 days and 168300 words to go