
Now, if we had one of those cost-more-than-$40 cell phones, they would do the job. If we didn't mind reading our books on a computer, we could download all of the formats. For us, though, we wanted a Kindle. It is designed for the techno-ignorant and Team Turner is,definitely, techno-delayed. So, last Christmas, each of us "surprised" the other and we had a very electronic holiday.
You know how, sometimes, you really want a gift and then, when you get it, it ends up being a disappointment? Well, our e-readers werebetterthan we'd hoped. We carried them everywhere. We bought special protective book covers with cool, extending lights and the lights are too damned bright, now that you ask, they're like spotlights in the bedroom and we were content. But, then, two days, one of us broke his Kindle.
Oddly enough, he was trying to hook the machine into the its protective book carrier when it slipped out and went crunch. It landed facedown on a hard tiled surface, a crack appeared behind the screen, and the top third of the Kindle went dead.
This was not good.You ever try to read a novel and the top third of EVERY page disappears? In Melville's Moby Dick, you lose, "Call me Ishmael" and his penniless origin and, per your broken reader, the novel starts with "Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon". At which point, you're wondering (a) Why is this snooze fest considered a classic?; and (b) What the hell does 'circumambulate' mean?
The bad news? We couldn't afford to replace a shnucked-up e-reader. (It is, too, a word.) The good news? When we called Amazon and told them what had actually happened, they were great. Customer service rep, Robert, agreed to ship a new one to us with a two-day delivery. Gratis. Because clumsy is apparently covered by their year-long warranty.
It's supposed to arrive today. As morning broke, one of us was at the front door, waiting, and mumbling to himself, "He wants the precious. Always he is looking for it. And the precious is wanting to go back to him...."