I actually had enough from clients wanting editing and formatting services over the last couple of months, that I could indulge in a new toy … a Paperwhite Kindle, to replace the ordinary basic Kindle that was a Christmas present from the Daughter Unit some ten or eleven years ago. Kindles were launched in 2007, to moderate acclaim from the author group that I belonged to at the time – and we were keen because Amazon opened up to indy authors, allowing us to post our books to the database, and make a bit of cash off having done so, since e-books obliviated the need for print, delivery and storage costs. And also, Amazon paid promptly for sales, at the end of the month following the month of the sale, unlike the regular print channels, who usually grudgingly dealt out a month after a fiscal quarter …

Well, anyway, I got my basic Kindle and loaded it up ever since with casual reading, and various novels that I wanted to read for the cost of a cup of coffee, but didn’t necessarily want to buy in print and then give hard-won shelf-space to … and being able to tuck the Kindle into my purse and take anywhere … a reader the size of a slim 6×9 paperback book, to read from a library – as long as the thing was fully-charged, of course. Well, the original basic Kindle eventually died the death that all electronic devices usually do, although since I got it at Christmas, 2012 and used it regularly ever since, I suppose that it gave good service. My original desktop computer carried on nobly for almost fifteen years, to the vast amusement of my computer tech friend Dave, who told me that most desktop units are good for seven to ten years, max. I guess that I am just easy on these devices. I lived in a house where the basic hot water heater carried on for thirty years, to the astonishment of the plumbing tech, when it finally did collapse entirely. Hot water heaters are generally good for ten years, so that one ought to have been deposited in a museum of plumbing somewhere.

Anyway, the basic Kindle first needed a replacement power cord, and carried on with that for a year or two, and then – just died. Wouldn’t turn on and power up … and I was sad, for a number of books on it which I enjoyed but could no longer access for pleasure reading, especially in the evenings. As soon as I could afford it, I intended to replace it with a newer one … and this morning I totted up the potential debits and the actual credits, and ordered a new Kindle Paperwhite … which most amazingly, was delivered late this afternoon by the specialty flying service. Possibly, this is a sort of neo-Victorian age, when there were two mail deliveries a day …

It’s a nice-looking unit, about the same size as the new one, and which I managed to connect and set up to my account without half the trouble that the old one demanded, on Christmas Day, 2012.  It has a touch screen, instead of buttons, which will take some getting used to, but the backlight can be adjusted, and all the books that I had on the old Kindle are ported over to the Paperwhite, Now, I wish that I had looked into decommissioning and returning the old Kindle to Amazon first, for I would have gotten a nice discount on the Paperwhite, instead of just a five-dollar credit. Oh, well – I’ve gotten enough discounted and free stuff from them – including a case for the Paperwhite, just for being a Vine reviewer.