Tuesday, September 20, 2011

e-reader, closure, laughter

It is no almost a year since I have owned a Kindle e-reader. When using it, as I do nearly every day, I miss the substance of a book, a book´s texture  and specific weight, the presence of it distinctive cover and of the various inscriptions permanently present on the cover. Above all I miss the sense of a book´s size in relation to its content.  On the other hand, the Kindle renders book marks unneccessary; it opens where you left off reading. It allows you to highlight passages, and mark pages and provides facilities to take notes. Notes and highlights are listed, can be found easily and you can move easily from these to the original place in the text. And, as I am just about to discover you can transfer documents - an entire novel for example written by a friend an submitted for inspection - on to it from your computer.

Somebody has removed the shirt and pair of shoes which I referred to yesterday from its ominous position at the edge of the sea. It must have been there for at least 36 hours. Perhaps the owner returned for them. Perhaps the men who sweep the beach took them away. The mystery remains. The story has no ending. I will not use the word  "closure" so widely used nowadays. There is no closure. There never is.

As I have done now for the last few years I am using the computer which is here,fo r the use of hotel guests, on the reception desk. It can be distracting but it also informative, as the constant coming and going of guests and would-be visitors keeps me up to date with the state of the hotel´s affairs. Today there is a conference in progress in one of the two conference rooms off the lobby. It reminds me, with no sense of nostalgia whatsoever, of conferences I used to have to attend in the distant days when I worked for a living. Just now a burst of laughter, followed after a pause, by another, recalls the release of  energy afforded by a welcome break in the tedium. Oh that tedium, the longing to be out at play!

1 comment:

Roderick Robinson said...

As the French would say: On verra.