Following this year’s a double-wammy of bird flu and root canal, I reached an impasse in my life and knew something fundamental had to change.
I’m not getting any younger, and my piles are - excuse me - my pile is only getting bigger.
It took years and multiple house moves for me to finally completely embrace a digital film collection and all but abandon physical media. It radically changed my life. But there was one massive foundation stone I sat on and refused to budge: books. But in May, one hot and humid Friday afternoon I did the unthinkable...
I bought a Kindle.
Not only did I buy a Kindle, but I bought the most expensive one, the Oasis. Because I figured, in for a penny, in for nearly three hundred quid inc. VAT. I did this after just spending €20 on a trade paperback copy of Stephen King’s new book, The Outsider. I asked the nice people in the bookshop if they had it in hardback (King is still one of the few authors left I would buy hardcover for his major releases). Alas, hardcover books are not printed for Ireland anymore, they informed me - but they could order one in from the UK. I said I couldn’t wait, and settled for what they had. A couple of chapters in at home, I grew more and more distracted. (It wasn’t Stephen King’s fault - the book is pretty terrific, as it turns out.) It was my book pile. Yet again, I had not made a dint in it. And I did WANT to read ALL of these books. Brow in hand, I knew action would need, now, finally to be taken. For real.
And then I remembered a tip I received from Derek Scally at The Irish Times. Some time back, he sent me a link to the home page of whom many regard as the world’s greatest audio book reader, Simon Vance. So I listened to a few clips and thought, okay, this fella is actually pretty good. I made a decision. I would attack the pile on two fronts. From the front and the back: digital and audio. But audio isn’t reading, you say? Alright, I’ll concede that point, but I needed to think outside the box here, people. It’s getting bigger by the day - Oxfam Books is only around the corner from my job, for feck sake! With audio books only part of the solution, choosing an e-reader was at hand. Any tablet can be an e-reader, but I wanted a dedicated hand-held that would keep internet side-tracking out of the picture. The Kindle was the only real choice. Plus, I figured, if I’d invested big money in one I just had to commit myself to this transformation wholeheartedly.
I finished Kindle version of The Outsider over the weekend. Initially I faffed around with changing the font size and style a lot before settling in comfortably for the full stretch. I did find myself whipping it out more than I would a large format book, especially when in motion on the LUAS or bus. And then something wonderful happened: I found myself reading two books. Depending on my headspace, I would switch between the Stephen King and a wonderful Jim Henson biography that I already owned in hardcover. In all of this I found the following rhythm: two books on the reader (one new, one from the pile) and a Simon Vance in the headphones for housework and cooking.
I have been known to sniff my way through second hand book shops, so I do miss the smell of a paperback more than I’m willing to admit. Plus there are plenty of books that have no e-book equivalent, so I will never completely abandon the analog world. But ultimately, what has sealed the deal for me is with less and less time, I am reading more and more.
So, half way through the year and I’m reading a book (two, actually), listening to a book, and writing a book.
That last one is another story...
