Back to reading
Guess how may books I’ve read since we went into lockdown at the end of March?
0
Yes, that’s right – I have read ZERO books! A big fat ZERO!
Obviously, my trips to the library came to a sudden halt…. but I have books on my bookshelves which I thought I would re-read. I have no idea how many books there are in my house – I’ve never counted them but definitely over 500 and probably over a thousand and maybe the figure is many more than that. I must count them sometime. Somehow, though, I just found myself unable to concentrate on reading for any length of time. I found myself obsessively looking at the internet, filling in the time before watching the government’s daily briefing with obsessively checking the news and reading the BBC news website.
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I tried re-reading My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin. It’s still on my bedside cabinet. I got to page 48 but no further. I toyed with the idea of reading my PG Wodehouse but Bertie and Jeeves are still staring balefully at me from my bookshelves.
However, now I have discovered that it’s possible to borrow ebooks from the local library by downloading them to the Borrowbox app! This is absolutely FANTASTIC news because, owing to Covid, I am not prepared to go to my local library even though it is open. I am really sorry about this as the library is my favourite place in town but, because I am protecting myself and others, I just can’t take the risk. They were already trying to close our local libraries before lockdown. I signed the petition and joined a protest but that was then, and this is now.
So bring on the wonderful piece of technology which is Borrowbox!
Unfortunately, I then discovered that I could not borrow library books through my Kindle (which I bought years ago but hardly ever used, much preferring paper to the Kindle reading experience) and it was not possible to download Borrowbox to my Windows tablet. Apparently I could download it to my Android phone but I didn’t think I could read comfortably on that tiny screen. So I have had to buy an Amazon Fire 7 tablet – yet another piece of technology to be re-charged.
I unpacked it and set it up last week. It is a lot better than my old Kindle and, if you get one, make sure you look in the box containing the charger as that’s where they hid the instructions! I just thought there weren’t any so spent a long time googling how to set it up. After a couple of days, I decided it needed charging and, lo and behold, there were the instructions tucked in with the plug!
There are loads of different types of Amazon Fire tablets and you can also do a whole host of useful things on it, such as downloading BBC i-player and it has my existing Kindle library on there and if music’s your thing then you can get Amazon Music Unlimited on it. And it’s got Alexa. If you want her.
So back to happiness. I have ordered the next Peter James book which is Find Them Dead but I have to wait till the end of November for it.
Meanwhile, I got a Liane Moriarty book The Last Anniversary.
I was reading it in bed this morning and laughing out loud and I suddenly realised I felt happy for the first time since March. Then I remembered Covid but thank you, Borrowbox and the library and Liane Moriarty for making me feel happy!
Just for a little while.
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