WELCOME TO THE MACHINE

After a year of exemplary behaviour, I was delighted - though somewhat anxious about revealing in literary company - that Santa had left a Sony e-reader in my stocking. This is the basic model, holding only(!) 100 books (or one paragraph by Dickens) and having basic controls, but I have already found it comfortable and pleasurable to use.

Despite the - for me - rare frisson of joining that much revered modern tribe, The Early Adopters, I can't see myself ever abandoning bits of felled tree smeared with ink, but for certain situations (holidays, commuting, lying in bed) the gadget will prevail for me, and I'm looking forward to building a ghostly library of virtual books.

My reader and I are still in the tender first phase of our relationship, so I'll keep you posted on how it develops.

David