I’m not a fan of kindle. Or at least I wasn’t. The main problem was that I’m terrible about recharging all my electronics and consequently the kindle is always dying at the most inopportune moments. Plus, it’s heavy and my wrist gets tired of holding it. (Yes, I’m a whiner.)
My other complaint is that I can never remember the name of the book or the writer I’m currently reading because I never see it.
“Oh, I’m reading this awesome book right now.”
“Really? What’s it called?”
“Uh, Um, I think it’s….actually I can’t remember, but I’m at, like, 68%!”
I just turn on the kindle and it opens to the page I’m reading, super convenient, no bookmark needed, but because there isn’t that daily imprint of seeing the cover art and the author’s name, I can’t seem to retain that information. (I’ve decided my memory is at capacity, but that’s the subject of another post.)
This morning I had a minute and I scooted over to goodreads to review the book I just finished last night (which I loved). I wanted to leave a good review and send a message to the writer thanking her for her story., but I couldn’t remember the name of the book or the author. My kindle was still on my nightstand (its battery slowly dying). The only way to get to my bedroom from my office requires that I pass by the puppy room (where all 12 of my foster pups were sleeping and quiet after a morning of poop games and three major cleanups).
There is no way to sneak by that room. There is always at least one pup still up, pressed against the fence closest to the door, standing sentry.
She would immediately sound the alarm and then all the pups would wake up, start whining and carrying on. Whining and carrying on leads to pooping. Then instead of writing my review, I’d have to do cleanup triage just so I wouldn’t be bathing puppies (again) by lunchtime. Don’t you love how my faulty memory and inability to recharge my kindle has led to this sad tale of too many puppies and an overloaded foster mommy?
Luckily, before I upset the puppy universe, I remembered that I could just open my amazon account and look up what was on my kindle. Brilliant! I was shocked to discover that there were 158 books on my kindle. I scrolled through and realized I’d only read about 10 of them. If there were 150 unread books piled in my living room, I’d do something about it, but 150 books on my kindle aren’t even on my radar. I even found a book I’d bought in paperback never realizing I’d already gotten it in kindle form.
Now that I’m aware of the situation, it’s nagging at me. I hate wasting anything. I even make croutons out of the leftover ends of my bread. I’d heard you could get the kindle app on your phone, so I loaded it. But who reads on a phone? That’s just silly. But then yesterday, I was again trapped by the puppies. (Blaming the puppies again!) I had lugged all 12 up the hill to a sunny spot near our barn and put them in a puppy pen to soak up the sunshine. I played in the pen with them until the poop became unavoidable and then found a bucket to sit on and watched them from the other side of the fence.
It was a gorgeous afternoon and I didn’t want to take them back inside, but I was kind of bored. I know—who gets bored in the company of 12 puppies? They’d gone to sleep in a large pile, minus Zora, the independent one who was lying on the opposite side of the pen. Super cute, but not really that entertaining. I posted a couple pictures on Instagram, but then there wasn’t much else to do.
I’m sure they’d have been fine if I went inside and got back to work, but I’m a first-class worrier and ever since I watched a hawk make off with one of my smaller chickens, I’d never left the puppies outside unattended. In reality, I’m pretty sure a seven-pound puppy is too big for a hawk to carry, but I’m not taking my chances.
What to do? What to do? Then I remembered my new kindle app on my phone. I opened it up and found a book I’d seen earlier during my kindle awakening. I opened it up and started reading.
You know what? Reading on a phone is actually kind of great. It’s very rewarding to turn the pages so quickly. I read for another 30 minutes and then way-laid a teenager to hang with the puppies so I could go make dinner.
So, now I’m an e-book believer. I can read anywhere, anytime! No matter how many puppies have me trapped.
My Life in Paragraphs 