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I remember reading my first e-book, D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover. It was a pdf version and I read it at the workplace, during my lunch break. When the plot started to get a bit steamy, I gulped and got nervous at any passing shadow, real or imagined. I was grateful to be reading an electronic version. At the slightest hint of a colleague stopping by, there was ample time to minimise the screen and pretend to be reading something else.
After many lunch breaks, I finished reading the story without anyone suspecting that like the protagonist, I was having a secret lunch rendezvous. That was a story made even more enjoyable by the one-sided cat and mouse game I'd introduced into it. But it being an e-book meant I couldn't snuggle up in bed or an oversized chair as I read. "Of course you can!" I hear you say. Surely it's a different sensation to hug a real book close and feel its page-texture between your fingers. The ink, paper, binding exude a smell that I love along with the weight of a whole volume in my arms. It's part of the reading promise I miss simply scrolling electronic pages.
All right, other arguments for e-books (the first being they're easy to hide) are that they're more environment-friendly, cheaper and easy to store and carry around. I try to find a balance by reading short stories in electronic form. There are helpful online resources for obtaining reading material. To start with, you may look up Project Gutenberg or Archive.org. Be very careful of imposter sites. My short story recommendation to you is 'The Lottery' by Shirley Jackson.
Meanwhile I shall try to motivate myself to read more contemporary books online.
Note: Thank you to those who have written to let me know you enjoy reading my column but daren't take a lesson because there are parts you don't really understand. I assure you we'll always speak at a level which suits you so that we can enjoy a casual conversation. Also, we can go through words and sentences that are difficult so that we learn together. Perhaps, they will be easy then and we'll always have something to talk about. No stress!
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