When
I saw this fabulous photo of Nigella Lawson in her home library I was green
with envy. I mean, look at it! If there is a Heaven, then surely it has a room
exactly like this and with no lifetime restrictions on reading everything
ever written - well, perhaps not everything, perhaps not 'All Those Shades of
Grey'.
You
may be surprised at my greenness – thinking surely, that as a writer who exclusively
writes e-books, I might instead covert the latest ereading technology instead…?
Well, the truth is… I love all books.
I
love all the lovely new ones with bright colours and sparkles. I love dusty old
tomes with aged dedications, I love, love, love them all. And there lies a problem,
dear reader…
You see, in my home office I have shelves of books. On the top shelves I have lots of paperback novels (in most genres) and below those I have all the heavyweight hardbacks. On one particular ‘special’ section I have all my precious first editions and coveted collectable books (you mean, I hadn't actually mention this fetish to you…?) alongside my signed and personally dedicated to me books (sighs and strokes books…)
My
love of ebooks came about quite by accident… actually.
A couple of years ago, Mr JH and I were taking a faraway trip and I had refused to compromise on my luggage allowance - but contrary to warnings from Mr JH about airline rules and regulations, the good people at Glasgow Airport had the decency to smile and accept my, ehem - rather large suitcase, with no fuss whatsoever. Although, this was not the case (pardon the pun) when we changed flights, my husband was proved right and I was proved wrong and we were hit with a rather excessive excess weight charge.
I
recall holding my breath, crossing my arms and refusing to offload anything. ‘I
need absolutely everything in that
case, I told my distressed husband, so he had no choice but to hand over
several hundred US Dollars to the airline concerned.
When we reached our
final destination, a beach resort where one really only needs a thong – and lots
and lots and lots of books – and I opened up my suitcase to find that even though we were both suffering from severe
travel fatigue and crippling jet lag, we suddenly had lots to debate about the
merits of paperbooks vs ebooks. I’m delighted to tell you, dear reader, that upon
our return to Bonnie Scotland, I received a Kindle as a gift from my darling husband
- and I’ve never looked back.
So
where do you stand with the paper vs ebook thing – or do you have room in your
heart for both…?