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Getting old

Getting old is buying again books that you gave away or lost years ago. Some I am buying for the third and fourth time.
At least there's still a strong second-hand book market, both on line and in bricks and mortar. Oxfam in Maidstone has a two storey second-hand bookshop filled with an amazingly broad selection.
The down side is when I get home too often I find my name written on the inside cover.

While eBooks have their advantages - great for reading on public transport - there are many disadvantages, too.

 1. No second-hand market
2. It's not a good idea to leave your Kindle/Nook/e-reader on the beach when you go for a swim or a walk.
3. People can't tell what you're reading and share ideas.

 Returning from France on the Eurostar, I was sitting opposite an attractive young lady who, after we'd ordered dinner, asked if I as enjoying the book I was reading. It was Javier Marias' A Heart So White, which my son had given me for my birthday.
After commenting that Marias' rivalled Henry James for paragraph length, she asked me about the translation, which I said was very good.
Up to this point, I though the lady was French, but when she told me she'd read it in a German translation, I had to ask. She was Romanian and worked in London.
Our subsequent conversation filled the rest of the journey and would never have happened had I been reading an eBook.

Comments

  1. IanAugust 21, 2018 at 4:54 AM

    Here are my views on a the topic:
    https://www.ianthomsonauthor.com/kindling/

    ReplyDelete

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