Old Dogs, Old Tricks, Old Technology...A Lesson To Be Learned (D.W. Marchwell)

Each time I’ve moved, I’ve come face-to-face with the evidence of my addiction:  103 boxes filled with books.  From as early an age as I can recall, I have been obsessed with reading.  Whether it is historical biographies, crime and spy thrillers or my most recent - now three-year old - discovery of m/m romance, I cannot seem to get enough of escaping into the stories for a little while.  As a result of this passion for reading, I was beyond excited when I found - in 2009 - a website that introduced me to something called an “eReader”.  I, as an old dog, was eager to learn yet another new trick.  It wasn’t anything as fancy as what’s come on the market in recent years, but I purchased one right away and eagerly awaited its arrival.  I was going to be able to read just about anywhere and everywhere, including school, and I would no longer need to create a plain paper cover to hide the beautiful cover art and story synopsis:  Why would I want to advertise to my students or fellow laundromat patrons that I was reading a book about two men falling in love?When the eBookwise 1150 eBook Reading Device arrived, I began to load it with every m/m romance story that I could find.  For the time, the steps I had to take to purchase, download and enjoy these stories seemed unrelentingly complicated.  But I knew it would be a matter of time before this particular niche took off and the advancements would become just as unrelentingly rapid.  And I wasn’t wrong.  There are so many eReaders out on the market now that a quick search on your favorite search engine will reveal all manner of device, memory capacity, downloadable format, color, protective pouch and weight.  I’ve always prided myself on keeping up with the latest trends and keeping a smart head on my shoulders when it came to things like doing my research into which technologies would best suit my needs.  But I must also confess that this old dog was one of the many savvy shoppers out there who managed, finally, to waste a sizable amount of money of all of the “new” eReaders that made all sorts of promises and delivered on almost none of them.  It wasn’t anyone’s fault but my own, really.  After all, one of the first lessons I learned about money is that a fool and his are soon parted.I’m happy to report, however, that even though my eBookwise 1150 is not the latest model or the lightest or the most stylish, it has now regained its position on the top of the nightstand, while all the others (and there are six of them) sit, unused, in the top drawer.  Even the vinyl pouch that accompanied my 1150 is still intact, something I cannot say for the various covers that cost more than my 1150 did back in 2009.So, for the second time in my life, I’ve been shown that function and form do not always go hand-in-hand.  While I’m sure I cut a dashing figure in the laundromat with my ultra-thin and fancy eReaders that allowed me to download wirelessly, achieving a successful download was an exercise in frustration.  I’d never once experienced a problem with my 1150, even though I had to be tethered by a cord to the computer.  My 1150 still allows me to read in any kind of light - because it is backlit - whereas the other eReaders did not afford me the same freedom.  While I showed an instructional video to my students with the lights dimmed - or out completely - I did not have to struggle to stay awake through my 100th viewing of the video; I was at the back of the room enjoying my stories.  And even though the 1150 may not hold as many books as the other six models, eBookwise still maintains my “bookshelf” so that I can switch out the stories any time I choose, like the old dog I am knowing exactly where he’s buried his favorite bones.It would seem, then, that despite all of the technological advances, some dogs prefer the old tricks.  And this old dog is one of them!