Two Worlds

I love to read a great book.  My very earliest memories are of reading and being read to.  I grew up in two worlds.  In the first world, I had chores, school to attend and a life to live.  The second was filled with rambling walks down Violet Vale with Anne, walking with Sal while we looked for blueberries, the dilema of wanting Winnie to drink from the spring and applauding her decision not to.  I have cried for the loss of favorite characters, hunted for pirate treasure with jim hawkins, cursed the fact that I had to be born a muggle.  I read and re-read every book in Richmond Public Library  each and every summer.  I love the the weight, the feel and the smell of books.  Our house seems to have books stuffed everywhere and anywhere.  I love and hate that my pet peeve is the kids getting out a book and not putting it away.  I love seeing Noah's grubby fingerprints on the pages of a book I loved when I was his age.  Or the tug of war that comes when Noah and I are reading something at the same time.  I'd like to say that my mothering instinct to give all to my kids first kicks in, but sometimes it does not, and I win, much to his dismay. 

Where did this unexpected trip down memory lane come from you may ask.  Last week after quite a few sleepless nights due to a baby that has decided she is never going to be born.  (yes, I know she still has the right to be inside, but come on...)   I was reading and trying to adjust my position without disturbing Chris, losing my place in the book, trying to keep the one perfect pillow in place, etc. when Chris said enough.  You are getting a Kindle.  At 2:30 in the morning he got out his computer and ordered me a kindle with a cover that has a built in book light.  Not the most rational decision ever made, but what is rational at 3 in the morning.  Certainly not looking up ways to induce labor, but we've all been there.  I have fought the idea of a Kindle for a while.  I don't know why, I own every other gadget around.  I just could not bring myself to contribute to paperless page turning, the touch of a button instead of the feel of the print in my hands.  I have spent hours of my life devoted to the wonder that is the world of books.  How could I abandon my second -very real to me- reality.  I had peeked at the kindle, I had looked at the nook, I had talked about it as a possibility, sure, who hasn't?  But, to actually get one?  It was a big step.  One that I don't think I could have taken on my own. 

For good or ill, I have in my hands access to an endless supply of worlds of words.  Yes, it is amazing!  Chris did say I would have to restrain myself, because I think he realized the next morning he had pretty much handed an addict the bottle. (and now I am not giving it back)  But, reading about Life in France with Julia Child, catching up with those crazy ladies in Cranford, seeing what it is like to find out you are actually a princess, and having the entire collction of Jane available to me at the touch of a button is consoling me while I grieve the -not loss-, but the change in the way I access the wonder of words. 

Your thoughts?