You can be part of my new book, “Because of the Kindle”
I’ve been mentioning that I’m working on something to mark the 10th anniversary of the announcement of the Kindle (on November 19th).
I’m going to do a ninety-nine cent (that’s the current plan) “book” called, “Because of the Kindle”.
My plan isn’t to write a hundred pages of new material. I’ll summarize each of the years, with the main events and probably what some of the discussions were.
I’ll reproduce some of the articles from this blog.
However, I’m most interested in what the impact of the Kindle has been. There was a lot of speculation at the time…how much of that has come true, and what was unexpected?
As always, I don’t think I have the only valid perspective, or the only interesting one. 🙂 I want to hear from you, and, if you want, include what you say in the book. That will be up to you, though, and you’d retain the rights to publish what you said elsewhere without asking my permission first.
You can contribute by commenting on this ILMK page:
That has more of the logistics. The main things are that, if I want to use what you say in the book, I’ll contact you using the e-mail address that shows to me (not to my readers) when you post and ask permission. There won’t be any financial compensation…that really complicates things, and I don’t expect to make much on this book, anyway. 🙂 My plan is to use 20% of any royalties I get on this to do giveaways on ILMK. I really enjoy doing that, but we are having a financial change in the family so I’ve been limiting that a bit.
The idea is that you’ll complete the thought, “Because of the Kindle…” What changes have happened? That could be for you personally (Do you read more? Do you read less? Do you read different things?), for publishing, for bookstores, for Amazon, for society generally…
Why ask “regular readers”, not celebrities and pundits? Well, I’d love to have the “experts”‘s perspectives also, but I care about what you think, and I believe other people will, too. I’m sure Amazon will do something themselves (they haven’t asked me for anything, but I’ve heard rumors about them asking other people). I think they’ll introduce some new hardware: it might be that they do a special 10th anniversary Kindle EBR (EBR)…water-resistant would be nice, but there may be more than that. I suppose they could follow some other companies and release a mini version of the original…just kidding. 😉 This might also be time for another revolution, such as Amazon auggies (augmented/virtual reality hardware).
Oh, what more thing: I’m using a hashtag I’ve created, #BecauseOfTheKindle. If people tweet interesting things with that, I may not be able to get them into the book, just because of how that will complicate getting permission…but I’m more about the conversation than the book (although I would, of course, like the book to be good and do well).
So…what do you think? 🙂
My current Amazon giveaway:
Beyond Curie: Four women in physics and their remarkable discoveries 1903 to 1963 (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
Giveaway:
https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/b139e577ee333624
- Winner:Randomly selected after Giveaway has ended, up to 1 winners.
Requirements for participation: - Resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia
- 18+ years of age (or legal age)
- Follow Scott Calvin on Amazon
Start:Sep 25, 2017 5:46 AM PDT
End:Oct 25, 2017 11:59 PM PDT
Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!
All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. 
Shop ’til you help!
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.
I Love My Kindle 
October 9, 2017 at 7:25 am |
You may use anything I type here in anyway you wish. Also, this may be too long so edit, omit, rearrange words, however you wish.
Because of the Kindle I have read so much more than I otherwise would have. I discovered a love for reading in 1992 at 27 years old. Before that I was not a reader at all. NPR was responsible for me discovering a love for reading when I accidentally turned over and heard them reading a book that sounded wonderful. I fell in love with reading after buying that book and reading it.
Somehow and for some reason I fell out of reading a decade or so later but when I went to Amazon one day in early 2009 and saw this thing called a Kindle for sale I just had to have it. I bought it and rediscovered a love for reading that still exist to this day.
The Kindle has also broadened my reading. If I still had to go to the bookstore and buy physical books I doubt I would have ever read Jules Verne, H. G. Wells or perhaps not even Mark Twain. Because these books are free or next to free made them easily accessible. I am not one to visit the library for a few reasons so if I didn’t buy it I didn’t read it. Those are some wonderful books I might not have ever read in a non Kindle world.
The Kindle, as much as literature itself made my life so much better in too many ways to mention here such as adding to my vocabulary.
Before the Kindle, actually getting out the dictionary was just too much trouble but now I can easily learn definitions to words I don’t know. The Kindle has greatly improved my life entertaining me and educating me at the same time.
October 10, 2017 at 1:13 pm |
Thanks for writing, Phink!
I love your story and thanks for sharing it!
I didn’t make it clear in the post or on the page, I think, but feel free to make more than one comment for Because of the Kindle!
October 10, 2017 at 7:01 am
OK, then mine might be better if broken up into multiple comments. By the way, great idea.
October 9, 2017 at 3:48 pm |
Because of the Kindle… I’ve become a much more catholic reader, no longer headed to just one section of books in the store or library. I carry the world of books in my handbag, and I’m never without something to read. I spend more time talking about books, suggesting books… and more money buying books…but a lot less time tripping over piles of physical books at my house!
October 10, 2017 at 1:15 pm |
Thanks for writing, Crystal!
I really appreciate you commenting! Feel free to add another one. 🙂
I also understand the piles of physical books. 😉 When my Significant Other first saw my bedroom, I had a path to within about a meter (three feet) of the bed…and I’d jump from there. You’d be passing through piles of books…oh, a few other things, but mostly books. 🙂
October 10, 2017 at 3:29 pm |
Because of the Kindle, I have been able to read faster, hence finishing more books each year. I have been able to donate hundreds of books to charity, because I have been able to replace many of them with digital copies, often for free.
Because of the Kindle, I have found the complete works of authors that I didn’t know existed, for example: I didn’t know that Arthur Conan Doyle wrote books on Napoleon or the Boer War.
Because of the Kindle, I am able to share all of the materials on my Kindle account by adding my friends and family to my account, without worrying if they will return the book or what condition the book will be in.
Because of the Kindle I have read more widely. I can find books I am interested in more easily, by reading reviews and the multiple ways Amazon lets you find recommendations.
Because of the Kindle, I can carry an entire library of books with me on a trip, without worrying if they fit in the suitcase.
Because of the Kindle, I can look up a word with just a tap with the on device dictionary.
Because of the Kindle, I don’t need bookmarks anymore.
Because of the Kindle I can highlight a passage and make notes easily, then save them to my computer for later use (complete with the bibliographic information).
October 11, 2017 at 1:38 am |
Thanks for writing, Karin!
These are great! I agree with many of them, and at least some, I had planned to put on the page myself. 🙂
October 10, 2017 at 6:56 pm |
I know I’ve written before about how the Kindle restored my ability to read books before, but I’d like to write it up in a more thoughtful post. For format purposes, does the comment need to start with “Because of the Kindle,” or can it end with, “And all because of the Kindle”?
October 11, 2017 at 5:47 pm |
Because of the Kindle… I can read comfortably. I’ve always loved reading, but now that I’m older, reading a book-made-of-paper can be discouragingly uncomfortable.
I’ve been nearsighted most of my life, and now I can’t easily focus up close. (Let’s ignore, for now, the cataracts that are starting to form.) Also, my hands hurt. Since childhood I’ve held a book in my left hand using my thumb to hold paperback books open, and it is exactly that thumb joint that is developing arthritis. But muscle memory is strong, and it just doesn’t “feel” right to hold a book any other way.
Enter the Kindle. Just when I didn’t want to read as much because it hurt, a device comes along that makes it comfortable to read. So now I can hold the “book” in my left hand if I want to or prop it up without worrying about flopping pages. I can set the type to the size that works for me, and minutely adjust the lighting to the perfect level.
It wasn’t until after I got my first Kindle that I realized how much you arrange yourself around a book in order to read it, even if it is a normal sized paperback but especially if it is a large hardback. Now I can sit in whatever position is comfortable, and switch positions when I need to, and just place the Kindle where I can see and read it easily.
October 11, 2017 at 11:22 pm |
This comment is intended to make a suggestion to you. I think it would be fun for you to mention in the book the story of you writing this blog. Since I got my Kindle in 2010 I missed the very first years of the Kindle community, but I did catch some of the very helpful nature of strangers helping other strangers with a new technology. I’d like to read your take on some of the early excitement of the first two generations of Kindles.
Also, some of the nook vs Kindle rivalry.
October 14, 2017 at 7:40 pm |
Thanks for writing, D. Knight!
Good suggestions! I am planning to do some of that sort of retrospection.
October 12, 2017 at 12:18 am |
First, I give you blanket approval to use anything I have posted to your blog. If you send me a request and I don’t respond, it would be because I got busy and am ignoring email. That does happen to me quite a bit. So please just send it again, although you really don’t need to send anything as far as I’m concerned.
I’ve read through the “Because of the Kindle” that are now visible, and mostly I want to say: yes, me too. The Kindle is such a big part of my life now that it’s hard for me to remember BK (before Kindle). So I’m going to try to remember my first Kindle (what is now called the Kindle Keyboard).
I’ve been a reader (bookworm) all my life, but the first e-Readers didn’t interest me at all until I was in a Barnes and Noble waiting to purchase a book and noticed the screen on the nook–I didn’t realize that the screen was designed to imitate paper until then. That got me interested, but I was still skeptical. It was a lot of money for a device, and you still had to buy the books–it would probably be too much money wasted. I kept thinking about it, though, and eventually decided I’d probably get one. But I couldn’t really decide between the nook and the Kindle. I read a lot of reviews and articles, and kept going back and forth: should I get one? If so, which–Kindle or nook?
Then I opened up Amazon’s page one day–they had just announced a new Kindle (later know as the Keyboard) at a significantly lower price. That meant they were serious about this product and wanted people on board. And I could justify the price of the device itself because it cost about the same as the new bookshelf I’d have to buy if I didn’t switch to digital.
Still it took me a couple of weeks to be sure. The clincher came when I was trying to get a hold of some books by an early 20th century author that had very limited availability in print (the Dr. Thorndyke mysteries by R. Austin Freeman). And on Amazon, there were available two volumes, each containing 4 books, in Kindle editions (only) for $0.99 apiece. Well, that was enough to convince me.
After I decided to order, I felt like a child at Christmas–I could hardly wait the month it took for the device to be released. Then I discovered the “Discussions” link on the Kindle page. And discovered a whole bunch of people who were just as excited as I was for our new — what? Toy? Life changing device? Also a bunch of already happy Kindle owners who made me realize it was probably the latter.
And here I discovered, after we received our Kindle, ILMK and Bufo Calvin who so patiently helped everyone learn about their new devices.
October 12, 2017 at 1:44 am |
In my early days of having a kindle (Feb 2009 and on) I also loved the kindle discussion boards. However, eventually I got tired of the snarky, rude comments. I have not been there in years now. There were some of the rudest people on there. I hope it has changed.
October 12, 2017 at 11:01 am
Yes. Same here. This is probably why Amazon has closed/is closing the discussion boards. I now follow only one discussion (on Kindle/Audible deals–the people there are pleasant and the discussion stays on topic), and now the discussion is moving to another non-Amazon forum because it’s being closed on Amazon.
October 14, 2017 at 7:32 pm
Thanks for writing, D. Knight!
I need to explore the new version of the forum…I was very active on there years ago, but haven’t been doing it for some time (just not enough bandwidth). I’ve heard they are going to restore access to the old posts.
October 13, 2017 at 1:47 pm |
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November 6, 2017 at 1:20 am |
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November 7, 2017 at 1:37 pm |
I have always loved to read on my Kindles, but I never realized how important my HDX Kindle would become until I had a stroke Christmas Day 2014. I took it to the hospital with me and when I went to rehab I had them put it on my bedside table where I could reach it. I was a life saver. It enabled me to be able to communicate with my family with one hand. I used it to google articles on Strokes and downloaded Stroke Magazine. It gave me hope when I was in a dark place. I still love my HDX Kindle and use it.
November 11, 2017 at 1:55 am |
Thanks for writing, Phyllis!
I think some people who are dismissive of people reading non-printed books underestimate the importance of e-books in a situation like yours…thanks for sharing!
November 7, 2017 at 1:49 pm |
My daughter-in-law is a teacher in Worcester, MA and when she needed more reading material than the school could afford for her class assignments, she set up a donation page and contributed a lot of her own money and purchased a number of the newer Kindle’s and had her husband help her network them into a reading lab. He built a security box to keep them in when not in use. The students love them and are now able to receive all the reading material at the same time. She is an amazing teacher. Her name is Lori Kolpin-Simpson.
November 11, 2017 at 1:57 am |
Thanks for writing, Phyllis!
Sorry, I should have realized your DIL’s name was there before I approved the post! If I use this in the book, I’ll disguise the name, unless I hear from your daughter-in-law…I’m just more comfortable that way.
November 7, 2017 at 2:06 pm |
My Granddaughter Allison developed Lyme’s Disease and was diagnosed about the time the large Kindle was released. She lost her sense of balance, her vision was impaired as well as the other infections that come along with the disease. I had heard about the new large sized Kindle about the time her maternal grandmother did and she was so sweet and purchased one for her. Allison had to be home schooled and doing her lessons were very difficult and they had to enlarge everything about 4 times for her to be able to read it. Being in high school and keeping up with her classes so she could graduate was so very important. She graduated with her class and continued to recover and went on to college. She was awarded a full scholarship to Tulane University where she is now a student. Without the support of her family and her Kindle if would have been so much more difficult.
November 11, 2017 at 1:58 am |
Thanks for writing, Phyllis!
Great story!
November 18, 2017 at 7:59 pm |
Because of the Kindle I now have access to just about every book I want to read. That statement may not seem all that unusual to some of you and is likely applicable to anybody reading this and so it may not seem all that remarkable. However, for me it has special significance, as I am blind. Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, books in Braille or recorded on tape were available through specialized libraries. While I never ran out of reading material the fact is that the amount of accessible books were a drop in the bucket, even compared to what a sighted reader could borrow from their local public library, let alone what was available at the corner bookstore. As the Internet took off, the amount of accessible materials certainly grew but, even with the specialized libraries available online to readers with print disabilities, the collection, while impressive, still didn’t offer everything. About five years ago, I was given a Kindle Keyboard as a gift. My world changed. I didn’t have an accessible smartphone at that time. What I had, however, was a portable device which allowed me to read pretty much any book I wanted. At that time, accessibility on those devices left a lot to be desired, including the fact that the Kindle store itself was not accessible. However, using a screen reader on my Windows computer I could browse the Kindle store to my heart’s content and order any book I wanted. As a kid, I always wished I could browse a bookstore. Because of the Kindle, I could not only do this but I also had the capability to order and read any of those books from Amazon’s virtual shelves.
November 19, 2017 at 11:07 pm |
Thanks for writing, David!
That’s a great story! The accessibility of e-books is certainly one of the major elements of what they have brought to the world.
November 21, 2017 at 7:37 am |
One of my favorite episodes of “The Twilight Zone” was “Time Enough At Last,” about a man who loves books but lacks time to read. Then fate intervenes, giving him all the time in the world to read. But fate is a double edged sword and cruelly snatches it away from him. I couldn’t even imagine how devastating it would to lose the ability to read until it happened to me.
¶
I’ve always loved books. As a child, my favorite season was summer when I had time enough at last to read all the books I wanted. My love of books led me to a career as a reading teacher, so I still had summers free for reading!
¶
Then, in 1996, I started having problems with double vision. I would see two images—one slightly below the other and slanted downward. After visits to ophthalmologists and neurologists, CT scans and MRI’s, tensilon tests and antibody tests, I was diagnosed with ocular myasthenia.
¶
Because the double vision was not constant and not stable, prisms in my glasses would not help. Neither did medication. The only way to ease the double vision was to avoid the things that put the most strain on my eyes, and the number one strain was reading.
¶
I spent almost a decade having to limit my reading. Small print like that in trade paperbacks and many hardbacks was unreadable. The library had a very limited selection of large print books. I tried books on tape, but I couldn’t concentrate on the spoken word, or visualize the characters, scenery and actions. It was devastating!
¶
Then, shortly after I retired, I started seeing an ad in the top left corner of Amazon’s home page for a hand held electronic book reader called the Kindle.
¶
In my journal I wrote: “I miss reading. I miss books. I’d like to buy one of those KINDLE readers from Amazon. It’s a futuristic Trek-like contraption. It’s a little on the expensive side, but if it lets me read again, it will be well worth the price. I have 30 days to try it. If I don’t like it, I can send it back for a full refund.”
¶
My first Kindle arrived on October 13, 2008. In my journal, I wrote: “I got my Kindle today, and I’m charging it now. It’s kind of complicated. I hope I can figure it out. It has a jog dial similar to the one on the phone. It’s smaller and lighter than I thought it would be, and the buttons are a bit too easy to push. I’m not sure if I’m going to like it or not.”
¶
The first book I bought was “Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World” by Vicki Myron.
¶
I set the font to the largest size available at the time. I found it very comfortable to read from the Kindle. It didn’t take long to adjust to the touch of the side bars and jog dial. I quickly decided I liked it. No, I LOVED it!
¶
In my journal, I wrote: “I finished my second Kindle book last night. I read it through from beginning to end. I can’t remember the last time I was able to read a book without having to stop after every chapter to rest my eyes. I can’t believe I’m actually reading books again. I didn’t realize how much I had missed it. I’m so glad I took a chance and ordered the Kindle.”
¶
It was a miracle. Because of the Kindle, I could read again!
¶
(If this is too boring, it won’t hurt my feelings if you don’t use it. If it’s too long, feel free to cut. The whole first paragraph could probably go! I started out with 1200 words and managed to cut it in half. I’ve proofread until double vision is setting in, yet I fear I’ve not found all my typos! I wasn’t sure if hitting a double return would show paragraphs, so I tried to insert the paragraph symbol, but I’m not sure it if will appear as a paragraph symbol or the # 7. Why am I taking so long to click the “post comment” button?)
November 21, 2017 at 2:02 pm |
Thanks for writing, Lady!
I really love this comment! It’s great that you have the contemporaneous thoughts from your journal!
We’ll see what happens with the paragraph symbols when I approve the comment. 🙂
Yes, that’s a great Twilight Zone episode. It was just Burgess Meredith’s birthday on the 16th, and that was my “On this day in geeky history” tweet. 🙂 https://www.enwoven.com/collections/view/1433?eventId=57055 . Meredith was actually in four Twilight Zone episodes. I have a relative who is having a superhero themed wedding next year. I’m thinking I may go as the Penguin, so I can use an umbrella as a cane (I need to walk with a cane). Burgess Meredith’s look from the Adam West series can work on a lot of people and body types, and will be immediately recognizable.
Thanks again!
November 21, 2017 at 7:50 pm
I think Penguin would be perfect for a wedding, super hero or not. You would just be wearing a slightly differed “penguin suit.” I hope you write about it either here or in The Measured Circle after it happens. I’m curios to know how the bride, groom and attendants are dressed. I’m not sure if Captain Kirk qualifies as a super hero, but I think I’d want him to conduct the ceremony. I had to look up the exact quote, but he once said: “”Since the days of the first wooden vessels, all ship-masters have had one happy privilege: that of uniting two people in the bonds of matrimony.” Some have been so bold as suggest he was mistaken, but perhaps in the Star Trek Universe time thread, that has always been true.
November 22, 2017 at 3:39 am
Thanks for writing, Lady!
Love that, although I would hope that the actual wedding ends a bit differently. 😉
At my sibling’s wedding recently, the officiant read from Hitchhiker’s Guide…
There is a lot of debate about who qualifies as a superhero. Technically, Batman isn’t super, and neither is Doc Savage, but most would certainly qualify the former as a superhero…
November 23, 2017 at 6:53 am
Probably to late to add this to the book but Lady is a genius. I never thought about personal logs. I call them that instead of journals being a Trekkie and all and every 2 or 4 years will start a new one with a title.
Some of the names I have used for these 2 or 3 year personal logs are “Klingons, Politics, and Humor” or when the kids lived at home I called one set of personal logs “Who Are These Short People That Keep Eating My Food” and this one from 2009-2010 is titled “Hey Grandpa, What’s For Supper” because I was a Grandpa for the first time ever and by this time I did a lot of cooking plus who does not love a good Hee-Haw reference. I tell people sometimes my phone number is BR-549 and they hardly ever understand. Anyway,
From personal Logs “Hey Grandpa What’s for Supper” copy and paste. Oh, I forgot all about this. What odds I’d buy a used kindle with the same book on it that I was reading. That is almost unbelievable. I do not remember that.
A.D. Saturday, February 21, 2009
Yee-haw! I am now a kindler. I got my kindle this afternoon. Ironically I was reading the book 1776 in hardcover format when the mailman brought the box to the door. My used kindle I got from eBay had that same book already downloaded onto it. Therefore I will finish the book using my kindle.
November 27, 2017 at 1:18 am
Thanks for writing, Phink!
It’s not too late…I’m not quite sure when I’m going to get it done (but I am working on it…don’t want to miss the holiday season entirely!). That is synchronicity!
November 23, 2017 at 7:07 am
Even if this is not good enough for the book or not what you are looking for I thought maybe you’d like to read it. I did a search for the word Kindle in my 2009-1010 logs and I had forgotten this too. From the sound of what I wrote it sounds like I ordered from Amazon but somehow my first Kindle came from eBay. I bet I placed an order and since it was back ordered just settled for a used one on eBay. I honestly don’t remember. Anyway, I’ll make this the last one so I don’t bombard you with them. LOL. This is a month before I actually got my Kindle. I might have ordered from eBay and cancelled Amazon’s order to save money as well. I wish I’d written about it but I did not. Whispernet….funny. Wrong but funny. It was whispersync….right?
A.D. Saturday, January 17, 2009
A few days ago I purchased what some claim to be the future of reading & the dawn of a new literary era. It’s called an Amazon Kindle & of course is manufactured & sold by Amazon dot com.
This device is an electronic reader. It’s not the 1st electronic reader ever made but seems to be far & above the best one produced so far. With other models you have to buy your book, have it downloaded to your computer & then hook the reader up to the computer & finally download the book to the electronic reader. It’s kind of like an MP3 player. The Kindle however does not work like that. It has what is called whispernet & connects using cell phone technology for downloading books straight from the kindle store to the reader. The biggest downside to that is they choose to use Sprint which doesn’t cover the entire nation. There are quite a few spots where the whispernet will not work. In that case the owner would have to do it the old fashion way by hooking the reader up to the computer & downloading the book from there.
I ordered my 1st book for the kindle last night even though the kindle has not shipped yet. I ordered the Whiskey Rebels by: David Liss. I ordered it because it’s free & I was afraid the price would go up before I actually get the kindle. Amazon has quite a few books that are free & even more for under a dollar but most of those I have no interest in. This actually sounds like a good book. Most books are $9.99 including new releases & best sellers.
The kindle is backordered until March so I have a few weeks till it actually comes in. During the Christmas season it was backordered by 12 weeks. Right now it’s only 5 to 7 weeks.
November 28, 2017 at 4:50 am
Just so you know, I keep my journal backed up on a thumb drive named “Captain’s Log.” I’ve kept a journal on my computer since 1994. I stopped keeping track of how many pages I had back in 2005. At that time, it was 4,073. So of course, now that I’m thinking about it, I’m going to have to go back through and count up total pages.
November 29, 2017 at 3:26 am
Thanks for writing, Lady!
I actually have several plastic binders with blue lined, three-hole punched paper as journals from a long time back. I’m hoping I get them scanned (or photographed) before something happens to them at some point…
November 29, 2017 at 2:51 pm
Captains Log. That is great. When my daughter was about 4 or 5 my wife and I were talking about a Star Trek episode and my daughter jumped in with a comment about Captain Picard and I forget the comment but she refereed to him as “Captain Log.” Turns out she thought his name was Captain Log.
I got my CDL in 1999 and early 2000 while driving a truck I heard Ted Koppel on the radio one day being interviewed. Now this has been a long time ago so forgive me if you find not everything I say is true here. I think he had written a book about the last year of the century through his eyes. He did a journal type book where he wrote his observances and feelings everyday for that last year and had it published. I thought “I’d love to find my Grandpa’s old journal in an attic somewhere.” Of course as far as I know no such item exist. I decided then to start a journal with the feeling I’d get really tired of it after a few months but I did it for years and for some reason just stopped. I think I need to start it again. My kids might want to read it someday. They might not but they might as well.
December 2, 2017 at 10:20 pm
Thanks for writing, Phink!
Well, you know, a blog is actually a “Web Log”, named after Captain Kirk’s log…at least, that’s what I’ve heard.
This blog is about as close I get to a journal nowadays. There are also e-mails and such, but I don’t do a dedicated journal…
November 30, 2017 at 1:13 pm
I started and abandoned several handwritten journals over the years. I still have some of them. I started the computer journal to record my thoughts and impressions about my move from HS to elementary school. At first I’d write just about that, but gradually I started writing other observations or just jotting down things I wanted to remember. Eventually, I realized I was writing every day. Back in those days when computers came with very short amounts of RAM, I had to start dividing it up into monthly chapters or the file would have gotten so large that I couldn’t open it! It started out on Microsoft Works. Then I had to convert it to Claris Works when Microsoft stopped updating works for Mac. Then Claris Works morphed into Apple works which morphed into Pages. Each month, as I close out, I make sure to save a plain text copy in case Apple fails to provide translators for my current version of Pages when I finally upgrade to a new Mac. That’s why it took so long to add up the pages. As of today, it is 12,949 pages long! Over the past few years, I’ve been going back and rereading older journals in 5 year increments, so today I’ll be rereading November 30 for 1997, 2002, 2007, & 2012. I also went back and transcribed those handwritten pages that I still had. I have nobody to leave them to, but I do cherish my mother’s diaries. She and my father were each the eldest of 7 children and I loved listening to them talk about their childhoods. After they passed, I wrote down as many of their stories as I could remember to share with my cousins. Please do start again. Consider writing a memoir. I know you’ve got good stories to share.
December 2, 2017 at 10:37 pm
Thanks for writing, Lady!
You made me nostalgic for some of the old software! I go back a long ways with that…my first home computer was the mighty Commodore PET…and we used audiocassettes for memory. 🙂
That’s impressive! I don’t have anything as consistent as that.
As to writing a memoir…I’ve considered something like that, although a lot of my life has been working its way into the blog. 🙂 I think I would probably do it with Enwoven (formerly The History Project), but I’m not sure. I’m writing so much right now, I’m not prioritizing that…but maybe some time.
November 28, 2017 at 1:27 am |
Because of the Kindle I believe I read more immersively that I did on paper. When there are fewer words in my field of vision, each word seems to have more impact on my mind. I feel closer to an author when I read his or her book on a Kindle.
Another way of saying this is that I seem to disappear into a story more quickly and completely when I read on a Kindle. I read on Kindle mainly at night or outdoors, and when I read Kindle books on my iPhone or Fire tablets I experience a similar level of immersion, though maybe not quite as much as with the E Ink reader. The temptation to stray from the book to a tweet or an email creates potential distraction on an LCD screen.
Also because of Kindle I discovered the focus for a weekly podcast that I started on July 26, 2008 and have kept going ever since. I have always loved reading and gadgets, so the arrival of the Kindle 10 years ago combined two of my passions. Over time, I came to know and admire many people who work at Amazon, including Jeff Bezos, who has been on the show twice. The Kindle team from Bezos on down have books in their DNA, and it shows in the consistent innovation they have brought to the platform.
Because of the Kindle I have met fellow enthusiasts for eReading like Bufo Calvin, Andrys Basten, and Stephen Windwalker.
Because of the Kindle I have had countless and fascinating discussions, online and in person, with listeners to The Kindle Chronicles. On this 10th anniversary of the Kindle’s debut, the conversation just seems to be getting going.
November 28, 2017 at 1:50 am |
Thanks for writing, Len!
I really appreciate this! I also like how you’ve made it very personal. 🙂 That’s important…it’s the biggest impact this technology has had!