The machine age

My reading has moved into the 21st century this week with a bang - not through choice of reading material, that has sat firmly in the eighteenth century, but how I'm reading.
I've read a few of the debates on 'the death of print' over the past couple of years, hysterical pronouncements that print is dead and we will all now read electronically, which I find quite silly. I still looked with interest at the ebook Reader when bookshops started stocking it, but never thought it was for me.
My brother has one and when we all went on a trip to London last month he sat on the train using it, happy in the knowledge that he had dozens of books with him. On the other hand I carried the book I was reading, the book I planned to read next, a different book to read next in case I changed my mind, and a couple more just to be sure I didn't run out which, for a busy three night trip, was possibly a little over the top and certainly quite heavy.
At Christmas my father received a Reader and I had another look at it and bought some ebooks for him, which was very easy. So when my parents asked if I wanted one for my birthday I said yes, but still wondered if I would actually use it.
During the four weeks between Christmas and my birthday, though, it preyed on my mind quite a bit. The deciding moment was when I saw a trailer for Lark Rise to Candleford and realised it was written about the nineteenth century not the 1930s or '40s as I had thought. I suddenly really wanted to read it now and realised that if I had a Reader I could download it and read it now, instead of just wanting to (although, as it turned out, for that particular book I could read it now anyway, as I had a long neglected paperback copy of it hidden away on a shelf, and very good it was too - a big improvement for my second book of the year) and so the benefits of the Reader began to become apparent.
Now, after my birthday last week, I have my own ebook Reader, and it's great. Easy to read and I was able to work out how to get books onto it without spousal assistance, so full marks there. A CD of 100 classics comes with it; I expected to find very few books on it which I didn't already have, but was pleasantly surprised. Although there are the usual Austen and Dickens etc, there are also a number of unexpected books which I have neither read nor got on the shelf - my criteria for putting them on the machine. Hopefully now I will be able to remedy the shameful fact that I have never read Balzac as several works were included.
My first trial of the machine was with The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin which is a surprisingly good read and a very interesting view of life in eighteenth century America. I got halfway through it in a day, with no headaches or other symptoms usually associated with reading electronic formats, so all in all I am very impressed.
Then there is the potential for library expansion, albeit virtual. Project Gutenberg alone has so many out of copyright works to download which I can now easily (with a few formatting blips) read using the reader that it leaves me feeling a bit dazed. I have only downloaded a couple so far, but the new works opened up to me for free (although my conscience insists I donate to the project) are quite overwhelming. And in these uncertain times any opportunity to save money while still increasing my library is welcome.
All in all I am quite won over. I'm not saying that it will replace proper books in my life, that would be ridiculous, and I will, I'm sure, still buy plenty of old technology literature, but it is a good addition to my reading life.

The Year's First Book

The first book of the year has been read and it took a long time. When I picked it up I expected a quick afternoon's whizz through an adventure romp but it turned out to be a week-long slog.

I don't know why, but King Solomon's Mines by H Rider Haggard did not grip me. It had all the things that should be good, lots of action and very little soppiness but something was not there. It is a book very much of its time and perhaps the ethos of the empire did not sit right with me, but I don't think that was it. It is curious how sometimes you will just not click with a book, and this is how I felt about this one. Pleasant enough but not a book I feel has enriched my life particularly.

The story is of a small party setting out to discover the mythical diamond mines of King Solomon in Africa, on the trail of Sir Henry Curtis' brother. The adventures include nearly dying of thirst, a run-in with an angry bull elephant, and then being plunged into a local war. There are some great characters, especially the evil Gagool, a crone who appeared to have lived for centuries and who takes a great dislike to the hero. And there are some funny parts such as the first encounter with the people from the hidden land where the diamonds are. One of the party was half-way through shaving his face and had no trousers on and had to stay like that from then on, as they claimed to be travellers from the stars and his unusual appearance becomes part of the story.

H Rider Haggard's reason for writing it was to prove that he could write a story as exciting as Treasure Island but I don't think he managed it; if someone wanted a gripping adventure story I would point them to Treasure Island every time. However, it was quite an enjoyable yarn.

After last year's first book (Captain Blood) being such a treat, 2009 has got off to a slightly disappointing start; the next book will hopefully grip me more.