I am in love. SO in love. Yes, with my husband (who is the very best man I could imagine and the prototype for pretty much every hero I’ve ever written into a book), but also with another. This other love is dangerous, and comforting, and helps me sleep better at night. I’m telling you, this newfound love has changed my life.
It’s my Kindle Paperwhite.
My husband surprised me for my birthday with the original Kindle a few years ago, and I liked it, mostly, other than I couldn’t read it at night without the light on, and my husband needed the light off to sleep, yada, yada– until I made the mistake of letting my kids borrow it, and they set it conveniently on the floor underneath one of the wheels of the rolling office chair. Crack. Gone.
This was sad. Very sad.
So my husband surprised me a few months later (also for my birthday) with a Nexus 7, which is a tablet made by Google, in case you don’t know. It had a Kindle app, which was all fine and good, but I’ll admit, I was a little like that “Oh, look! A squirrel!” stereotype, and every time I’d turn on my device to read a book, the Nexus would make a little bell go off to tell me something interesting was happening on Facebook or that someone had sent me an email or liked my tweet, and boom, I’d forget about the book I was reading. (No, I’m not proud of my attention span, in case you’re wondering.)
Eventually I just stopped trying to read on that thing since, frankly, it was guilt-inducing.
Around this time, I developed some insomnia. Anyone who has dealt with it knows what I mean. Let’s just say it’s not awesome to awaken in an already too-short night only to be bombarded with thoughts of worries and not be able to shut off the brain and to lie there obsessing hour after hour, night after night, until you think you might die of tired.
So my first love (Gary) birthday surprised me yet again–this time with the Kindle Paperwhite. VOILA! Suddenly, the world started to look rosy. For one thing, I could turn it onto airplane mode and never have the internet distracting me. (In fact, I’ve never used it for anything online other than synching new books I’ve added to it.) Guiltless! For another, it has an adjustable backlighting. I can read it in full daylight, and I can crank down the backlight and read it on a super-dim setting at bedtime so it doesn’t distract my One True Love from his sleep. And best of all, I can load it with THE MOST MIND-NUMBING BOOKS OF ALL TIME (in addition to some exciting books) to help me fall asleep again when that little nudge of wakefulness used to turn into full-blown anxiety for the remainder of the night. Now, thanks to the Kindle Paperwhite, all I have to do is slide my little love out from under my pillow, run my finger across the page to load Anthony Trollope’s “Golden Lion of Grandpere,” and boom! Six pages later, I’m snoozing again.
Magic! Magical magic. Magically magical magic that has turned me from a woman with dark circles under the bags under my eyes and a gaunt, scared animal look about me most of the time into a rested, refreshed mother with much more normal and pleasant interactions with my kids.
I’m telling you, I love this thing.
Now, for the danger. A Kindle Paperwhite combined with a Book Bub daily email can be a dangerous thing. Every day Book Bub tempts me with amazing, incredible deals on books they are *sure* I’ll like. (And they’re right, since I’m the one who signed up under the genres I’m most interested in.) Just 99-cents for a book about the life of Cary Grant? Yes, please. So many incredible, well-reviewed books for so little money! I’m in heaven, I tell you. (If you’re a reader who likes fluffy, happy romance such as Cotton Candy for the Soul and want to follow me on Book Bub, be my guest.) I’m loving it even more. It has deepened my love affair to a true commitment level. I’m at the point where I can barely relax at night if I can’t reach my hand underneath to the cool side of the pillow to find my insomnia cure there, waiting for me with its healing pages and adjustable font size.
Bless you, little Kindle Paperwhite. You’ve made my life so sweet.
And an even bigger dose of love to my sweet husband for surprising me with the perfect gift. So glad he doesn’t mind sharing his bed with this other love.
