NEW TOY

As well as running and listening to jazz there's very little I enjoy than sitting starring into the middle distance.

It's not a form of meditation or anything - it's just sheer unadulterated arse numbing idleness. I love it.

Some people want to be on the go "24/7"? Super - have a great time. Just forgive me if I don't join you ... I'm pretty busy doing feck all right now.

Occasionally though I do like to lift the boredom a tad and that's when I enjoy a good book.

So. It was after quite a bit of "humming" and indeed "hawing" that I went out the other day and bought myself one of these new fangled "eReaders" (don't mind the prefix "e" - if it had been an "i" I would have left it on the shelf for some other techno sheep).

Now, there is a good choice of books to load onto this thing so content wouldn't be a problem. But would it be as good as a proper book??

Yes....ish.

The screen isn't as bright or glaring as a PC screen. On a PC even emails of more than a couple of paragraphs have to be printed out so that I can read them comfortably. But on this I can read for long periods with little sign of any discomfort.

What I do miss is the feeling of physical progression that you get with a book. You can not only see that you are half way through or nearly finished - you can feel it. With these little things all you get is a small counter at the bottom of the screen. Proper books are tactile .... this is, but not in the same way.

It's certainly more train friendly than some larger heavier books. That might not seem like a problem to some people, but given that my bag normally has two sets of running kit, shoes, shower paraphernalia, lunch and less important stuff (like shit for my work) already in it, any small saving on space and weight is a plus.

It reduces the dreaded fear of ending a book halfway between the DGP and Edinburgh and having to sit and look at my fellow travelers. From now on? Just click on another book.

One big down side? As far as I know you can't buy "second hand" ebooks in charity shops!

Not going to stop me from buying and reading paperbacks, but it might slow the process down a bit.

It might keep the house a bit tidier. At the moment I've a pile of about 75 unread paperbacks.

I never (or very seldom) keep a book once I've read it. I usually just pass it on. So If I alternate between proper books and ebooks I could get rid of that pile in... oh I don't know... two years???