I got my Kindle before I got this blog, and after I finished reading my first book on it, I wrote about it in a private note to myself (I would never call this private note to myself part of a journal because that would make me sound old, which I’m not):
“I finished reading my first book on a Kindle. The book was Nora Ephron’s I Feel Bad About My Neck. This is a work of literature that I would have NEVER bought in a bookstore because I would NEVER want someone to witness me buying it. I am not sixty years old. I don’t feel bad about my neck. Jokes about lost reading glasses are not supposed to be funny to me. But I heard it was amusing and I like Nora Ephron’s writing. I wanted to read it. I just didn’t want anyone to know I was reading it. The Kindle is perfect for this. You download the book directly to your Kindle (no sneering bookstore clerk necessary) and there isn’t a bookcover to give you away. This could be a negative if you’re the type of person who enjoys sneering clerks or likes to use books as accessories (“this copy of White Teeth looks so cute with my floral dress”). But I am not that person; I like that what I’m reading is now a secret.”
Despite a little cringing at the wide-eyed way I wrote about cool new technology (You download the book directly to your Kindle! What will they think of next!) I was completely fine with this dogma until today. Today I learned that Francine Pascal is writing about the Sweet Valley High twins again! For adults! Even the Amazon.com description of Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later makes me crazy happy: “Iconic and beloved identical twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield are back and all grown up, dealing with the complicated adult world of love, careers, betrayal, and sisterhood.” Except for the sisterhood part, Francine Pascal is writing in my wheelhouse again, just like she did with Playing With Fire, The New Jessica, Slam Book Fever… This is going to be a brilliant, lowbrow book that I cannot buy the Kindle version of. That would ruin so much of the awesomeness. I am relishing the thought of:
buying it in public
reading it in public
and planning an outfit around it.
I might even take longer to read it than I’m sure is the less-than-twenty-fours hours this activity will require just so I can carry it around more. Where can I get a gold lavaliere necklace? And a twin?
