Books at Camp (like Pigs in Space, but Different) Addendum

Books at Camp Addendum (Like Pigs in Space, But Different)

Bibliomama / August 26, 2023 at 03:05PM

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First, about my last post, OH MY GOD you guys, I'm chaotic but not THAT chaotic. I explained it badly, though. My morning pills were spilled inside the med bag, so I'd reach to the bottom and scoop up some loose pills, see what kind of handful I got and then AMEND IT to the proper medication. Not that it would have been a huge deal anyway, we're talking allergy pill, acid blocker, vitamin D and magnesium, but I am not that fun and free-wheeling with medication. 

On my Reading at Camp post, Tudor asked if everybody had print books. I think the only person who had an ereader (he also had prints books) was Dave.

Oh, Tudor is my fabulous author/narcoleptic horse-rider friend. Check out her books here. 

I'm trying to figure out if I find it funny that Tudor only reads ebooks - I think I've heard people say they will only read paper books, because of various reasons, more or less Luddite-like. I had a touch of that feeling myself when ereaders were first a thing. I've gone way to the other side of that, mostly because of my failing sight and the fact that I can read on my ipad without a light on at night, which is kinder to my husband. I don't have an ereader, though, I just have the Kindle app and the Libby app (for library ebooks) on my ipad. I think this is because I wasn't sure if an ereader would be for me, so I just tried the apps, and then that worked well enough that I didn't feel the need for a dedicated device. I can only read on the ipad somewhere I can prop it up, though, with my vicious carpal tunnel - I had never seen the thing Hks recommended, but I sort of jury-rig the same kind of thing with pillows or throw cushions. I guess a normal ereader isn't that hard to read in the sun? Would you worry about it getting sandy? 

Every now and then I feel inexplicably out of sorts reading on the ipad, and I can't decide what to read next, and then I have to read a paper book or two. I have no idea what that's all about. 

I will admit that every now and then I have trouble getting my app to connect to the library, or it acts up, and I can't access the books, which makes me feel panicky and angry and like this is all a terrible idea and this would NEVER HAPPEN with paper books etc. etc. Then it settles down and I forget about it. Plus it's not like I don't always have five or six hundred paper books around if that happens, but you know, when you want to read a certain book you REALLY WANT to read that certain book. 

I have been a long-time fan of Miriam Toews, a Canadian writer from Manitoba. One of Eve's university friends lent her Fight Night, and from then she was also a fan. Some of the editions have these fun stripy spines, and she's had amazing luck finding them in Little Free Libraries and in the used section at her adorable neighbourhood bookstore. She also stole some of mine, but in return she gave me a copy of Fight Night last Christmas. I love Toews because she writes about people who are often in dire circumstances, but she also finds a deep, loving, sometimes screwball humour in everything. Eve brought home Summer of My Amazing Luck and Women Talking for me to read over the summer, which of course I didn't because I always have library ebooks that have an expiration date. I realized last week that I was probably out of time to read them before she took them back to Hamilton (they need to live together on her shelf, those are the rules and I respect them). Then I remembered that I am me, so have powered through the one and am about to slam back the other. 

This also became The Summer of Ray Bradbury for Eve. When I was down picking her up we did our customary bookstore pilgrimage and Fahrenheit 451 was on the used book shelf outside, so I bought it for her. Then my friend Nat (HI NAT) was getting rid of some books and gave me a copy of The Illustrated Man. Just to keep the streak going, I then gave Eve Something Wicked This Way Comes. She was familiar with Bradbury from a short story she studied in high school, and I had then given her a collected short stories volume. 

Sharing books with my daughter is one of those things that I dreamed about but never really believed would be a thing - it seemed too magical and unreal. What a gift.