BOOK OR KINDLE?

When I was a little girl, a very kind neighbour used to take me to the library and I used to "devour" books (not literally, of course!) and although I was always being told "Get your nose out of that book", it doesn't have quite the same ring saying "Get your nose out of that Kindle"! I'm sure I have bad eyesight because I wasn't allowed to read at bedtime, so I used to sneak a book under my bed, and read once my mother had gone downstairs, but never with the light on, which was quite a strain reading in half-light or even by torch-light.

I met with my friend, Linda, today and her daughter, Vyara, came too, as it was half term - and anyway, we like to catch up with one another, but of course, grown-ups chatting can be quite boring for children!

For most of the time that Linda and I were chatting, Vyara was reading on her Kindle and I was intrigued to see that if you come across a word you don't understand, you just press and hold and it gives the meaning. This is obviously much easier than going to the bookcase and finding the word in a dictionary - but I am still NOT convinced that holding a Kindle gives the same feeling as holding a book. Perhaps that is why some children find it difficult to put things in alphabetical order - if you have a Kindle, you have no need to learn that, as the word pops straight up, but actually, I quite like looking through a dictionary and finding other new words.

I know that our home would be really empty without books - in fact, we could probably move to a smaller house if we got rid of some of them, but I think for the foreseeable future, we will stick with what we have.

Thank you, Vyara, for agreeing to be my blip subject today - it was great to see you both and I look forward to our next meeting.

Apparently, the reading device is called a Kindle because "a book starts a fire in your imagination" so maybe Voltaire, who was born in 1694, should get the credit!

The instruction we find in books is like fire.
We fetch it from our neighbours,
kindle it at home,
communicate it to others,
and it becomes the property of all.
Voltaire

Thank you for all your kind comments and stars for yesterday's blip - if you want to have a look at some of my other photographs taken in Salisbury Cathedral, have look here.