The eReader

I won a gift basket in a raffle at the end of November.

It was really, truly a swell basket, mostly because I won something. Which I hardly ever do. But it did have some really cool stuff. Like:

* The most precious travel DVD player (that went to the Number 2 Son as a Christmas present)

* Two of the coolest little Leatherman wannabe's (I kept one, the other went into The Miz' Christmas stocking -- I've used mine twice already!)

* A 75-minute massage redeemable by Dec. 31, 2010 (like THAT was going to happen)

* Miscellaneous travel beverage cups (also relegated to Christmas stockings -- the N2S thought he'd died and gone to heaven)

And.

And.

* An eReader

My eReader is pretty basic. It does not perform brain surgery, locate lost children nor, damn it all, clean bathrooms. It does not have a touch screen, pretty colors and lights, nor the ability to surf the World Wide Web. To be blunt -- at the end of the day -- it has a pretty nifty bookmark feature and ( I think) a dictionary. That's about it.

For that (I think) we are grateful.

A number of ladies in The Book Group have various flavors of eReaders, sing their praises, and love them. Curiosity piqued, I finally got my eReader up and operational this New Year's weekend.

And here's the Bermtopia 411:

Me, I think I prefer the feel of a book of in hand, with pages that go flip-flip-flip.

Except.

The eReader is pretty handy for reading in bed (when I stay up late enough for such frivolities). There's no juggling of slippery hard-covered tomes and no battling of recalcitrant paperback book pages. Just click-page-click-page-click-page.

And I already see its advantages on long-haul trans-Atlantic/Pacific flights. To whit. I am a fast reader. I have burned through a book-and-a-half on a flight to Europe, and that's including watching the in-flight movie. Upload 3 or 4 books -- hmmm. I think this is the start of a beautiful relationship.

And finally, who doesn't love not killing trees (we won't dwell on the heavy metals in the batteries of these suckers) and saving a little coin (about 50%) when buying an eBook.

Except.

At the end of the day.

I prefer the feel of a book of in hand, with pages that go flip-flip-flip. My independent bookstore will still see the majority of my hard-earned shekels.

But -- sorry -- on a long-haul to Europe or Japan -- I'm loading up!