I love reading, and quite often, when the fatigue is at its worst, reading is just about all I can manage to do - besides sleeping, of course!
The other benefit of reading when your abilities and life in general is extremely limited, and you suffer from the kind of depression brought on by those limitations - reactive depression - reading books is a brilliant way to take you away from the life of limitations and pain, as you become absorbed in the story you're reading. Does that make sense? I can't watch tv or a movie because I struggle with sensory overload, and I can't take it all in fast enough, so reading is my only option, really.
However, that brings a whole set of problems of its own, doesn't it?
I love books. The real kind, with paper pages and the distinctive and wonderful smell of the paper, printing ink and whatever other materials were used to manufacture the book held in your hands. But I love thick books with very long storylines that I can become so absorbed in that I can lose myself in them.
Book rests of various types can work well sometimes, especially with hard back, or well worn library books that don't object to staying open on a particular page, but for me, I can't afford to keep buying hard back books. Also, being house bound, and not only reliant on others to get me out, but suffering a lot of pain just sitting up for a few minutes, and the additional fatigue that comes with any outing, even a short one, can take me a week or two to recover from, after almost literally sleeping 24/7, means that visits to the library aren't really practical for me either.
Thank heavens for technology, because I'm no longer able to feel very much with my fingertips, so turning over a single page at a time fluently just doesn't happen, so it spoils the flow of the story I'm reading, even if someone brought me books from the library.
A couple of years ago I was talking to my daughter about the problems I was having just trying to read a book, and she bought me one of the very first of Amazon's Kindle e-readers - the keyboard version which is no longer in production - and my reading life was transformed!
I soon went on to discover, also, that I didn't need to have to pay the high prices that established authors charged for their books, because there were a plethora of new indie - or self published - authors, who not only don't charge much for their books, but also have 'free' days, or even don't charge at all for certain books - ever!
Furthermore, all you need is a computer and an internet connection, and you get to choose your own books! To be honest, you don't really need a computer, as you can use the Kindle itself to shop for books, but you get to see more information using a computer to go book shopping.
Whilst shopping for your own books might not seem much of a boon to most people, anyone who has difficulty getting to a library and has had to leave their choice of books to someone else will know exactly what I mean here.
When you have to live with permanent limitations, it is often the little things that mean so very much, and choosing your own reading matter can be one of them!
Towards the end of last year, I was lucky enough to acquire an upgrade to my first issue keyboard Kindle which, unfortunately, like many technology items new-to-the-market, had a few glitches...the first keyboard Kindle, I mean, not the upgrade!
My upgrade was the 7 inch screen Kindle Fire HD. Primarily, I wanted an e-reader, but I had managed to avoid being hospitalised for a very long time, that I knew my luck couldn't last, and there is so much more to the Kindle Fire HD that it is basically a mini portable computer as well!
If you buy the right case for the Kindle, you also have a stable and quite adaptable stand/rest, as well, and all you need to do is either tap, or swipe the touch screen in order to turn the page! No struggling with separating the paper pages. No aching hands and arms with trying to hold the weight of the book. No fidgetting and moving around to try and find a suitable place to support your book and still be able to read it. With a back light, you don't even need to make sure you can get enough light on your pages. You might not even need to use your reading glasses, because you can change the font style and size to suit your preferences. And if you're photophobic like me, you can even alter the brightness of the screen, too!
Of course, I do still miss the wonderful smell and feel of real paper books, but with all the other advantages to using a Kindle, I no longer really miss them as much as I thought I would, to be completely honest, and I'm ususally so absorbed in my reading that I don't even think about it at all, because I can read fluently and don't lose the story line whilst trying eagerly to separate the next single page! Or have to stop reading because I can no longer hold the book!
I know this blog was initially about arts and crafts, but I figure that reading is a leisure pursuit with so many problems all of its own, that I would discuss options here, to show others in a similar situation to me that there are still ways to enjoy reading, even when going through bouts of illness when you are too weak to do anything else.
Furthermore, the past couple of days has given me a bit of a nudge to mention the Amazon Kindle Fire HD, because Amazon have just released the next, improved version, of the Kindle Fire HD, called the Kindle Fire HDX. As a result, the Kindle Fire HD has just massively dropped in price to just £99! The new version is twice that price. Mine cost £159 just over a year ago, so £99 is an excellent price, in my opinion!
I'm not sure what added features the HDX has over the HD, but the latter has served me well, even during a brief hospital stay in March (perhaps I tempted fate with my previously mentioned reason for choosing the HD model over some of the cheaper versions which were just e-readers with no other options - the possibility of me ending up in hospital before too long! LOL!), and I can honestly say that if I had the funds available at the moment, I would actually buy another HD model at that price, as I've already filled the entire 16GB of storage with books, games and apps, and keep getting messages telling me it is full! LOL!
And there is another advantage to using a Kindle - I have a veritable library at my fingertips, so no struggling to get out of bed and trying to locate a book on a dusty bookshelf that I struggle to get to! When I spent a few days in hospital, that 7 inch little gadget that easily fit into my bag, carried with it literally thousands of books, a good selection of games to play, some apps with info on knitting and crochet, as well as some books of knitting, crochet and some small fell sewing patterns...all in one little package. And I didn't need internet access to use most things.
You can even store music and stream movies with the HD, though I haven't done either, so can't comment on the ease of use or quality of these functions.
What more do you need?
It might seem a fairly expensive layout to start with, but if you consider the price of books produced by well known authors, it wouldn't take you long, or really purchasing so many of those books before a Kindle would be paid for!
And the books produced by the vast majority of Indie authors are every bit as good, and sometimes even better, than mainstream authors!
Another reason why I decided to bring up the Kindle now, is that one such Indie author, Lizzy Ford, is giving away 12 Kindle Fires before Christmas! You don't have to do much, though you do get your name in the drawings more times if you have Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts. I have the first and last, though don't use Facebook a great deal. I do enjoy using Pinterest on days when I can manage to browse the net, but not much else, and don't feel like reading...but I will talk about Pinterest in another post, as it is very useful for any crafter, especially! And it can also be very addictive! LOL!
I do tend to have a problem with rambling and going off topic and off at a tangent, but typing things means that I can back track if I do! LOL! Not that I did on this occasion, at least! Honest!
As you can see by the above image, we have all missed some of the earlier draws for Kindle Fires, but we can all get in the draws for those still open.
Lizzy Ford's Kindle giveaway page can be found at the web address at the bottom of the above image. Go and take a look. What do you have to lose?
Good luck!
Love...Diane x
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