I
still prefer holding a real-live book in my hand than a computer device, but a friend has just offered me her old kindle which I am going to give a try. Chad has been reading books exclusively on his ipad now for a couple of years and mocks me when he sees me holding a book.
The main attraction is that all my books would be stored on a single device and not become dust collectors on the bookshelf. I am finding that my tolerance for dust collectors is decreasing as I age.
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow would have been the perfect first book on my kindle; not only was it written by a coeditor of Boing Boing and available for free download in more formats than I could be bother to count (download it here) but it’s about exactly that chasm between today’s technically savvy youth and my generation who grew up without computers or (gasp) cell phones. That chasm is yawning wide right now and I can feel it even between me and my friends who are just ten years younger who seem to be able to find anything, a perfect gift to buy or any nugget of information, in mid-conversation.
It’s about a handful of teenagers who get scooped up and unethically treated in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in San Francisco – it hits scarily close to a possible truth (especially if you’ve read Zeitoun, a true story about New Orleans’ Katrina’s police state) when the kids are enraged and strike back by scrambling and messing with all the city’s surveillance systems. Communications happen via gaming and pilfered internet access and M1K3y is suddenly at the helm of the unanticipated revolution.
It’s a good fun fast read, but it left me craving something slower and perhaps more poetic. I think I’ll go check out another one by Ruth Ozecki…