Kay Hudson

but only after overcoming a deep sense of being unfaithful to my life-long love of books and my large collection of paper volumes.  Would I be cheating on my old friends?  Would I stop buying “real” books?  Would civilization as we know it crumble?

On the other hand, I really wanted a new toy.  I’ve never wanted a laptop computer (I work at a computer at my day job and write long-hand on the living room sofa in the evenings).  I don’t need a new car (my seven-year-old Corolla still gets 34 miles to the expensive gallon in commuter traffic, thank you very much).  I had a $100 gift card for Amazon.com.

I had even heard a rumor that it was possible to load one’s own manuscripts onto a Kindle, far more convenient for read-through than that big binder or stack of paper.  So I did my research, planned my order, clicked on “submit” and waited for the UPS man.

My first thought upon firing up my new Kindle was a quote from Arthur C. Clarke:  Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. 

My second thought was less philosophical:  Let’s go shopping.  Stay tuned and I’ll tell you what I bought at the Kindle store–and what I bought in good old-fashioned paper form.