On this WordPress screen previously there has been an electronic copy of the book My American Mother. Those who have read it and commented have found it a fascinating read—albeit a difficult one. The problem was that WordPress cannot count to 20 chapters without taking off its socks. The order of the chapters was confused. We had left it in chapters to make it easy to read and in trying to fix it we decided we might as well do a complete edit and make the book available for sale as an e-book.
It is now for sale in the Kindle store. And if you check the upper right hand corner of this page, the free electronic copy is gone. Every electronic copy you buy or convince others to buy earns me another US$3 in royalties. We do not expect to become overly rich.
Why Kindle? It is the daughter’s fault. Her inspiration for my birthday this year was a Kindle. All along, we had expected her to come up with a gift certificate for my first free-fall parachute jump but she surprised me. She not only presented the Kindle to me but had already initiated it to make sure everything works. That explains why the directory comes up saying “Kate’s Kindle.” She out did herself.
Coincidently the wife was looking for a copy of a book that had a waiting list at our Babel library and not available in print from the local Chapters store. A stroll through the Internet Kindle Store turned up the book she wanted and I bought it for her. She was somewhat surprised when I handed her the Kindle and said, “Here, you try it.”
She hated the book but loved the Kindle. We both agreed that it was the perfect solution for bathroom reading: no awkward fumbling to turn pages and the adjustable font size is a delight for us seniors. Neither of us can figure out what to do with the funny little keyboard on it—it actually allows you to type notes as you read—but I rather think we will not bother.
The key benefit I find is that you can turn the thing off and it remembers your page for you. It faithfully returns to just the right spot when you want to resume your read. We have had a life-long thing with dropping bookmarks from books and then not being able to find our place.
It helps that the wife and I are avid readers. The wife is not sure yet whether this will keep me away from the reduced-price tables at Chapters or if we can afford the Kindle store. Time will tell but you may be sure I will not relinquish my library card.
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