I have owned a Kindle for a little over 3 months. As someone who has had a longtime addiction to books, I wasn't sure how I would take to the device. Surprisingly (or not?), I've discovered I'm a fan.
Reason #1: Reading on the Kindle feels like reading anything else, and I love reading. (I also love stating the obvious.) Admittedly, the Kindle is a little harder to prop up on my knees when I'm reading in bed, but a pillow does the trick, and I find myself quickly absorbed in the story and no longer aware that the text I'm taking in is not on an actual page.
Reason #2: Holding the Kindle in my hand feels like walking into a good bookstore. What I mean is that there's a moment of excitement when I first enter a bookstore that goes something like this in my head: "oh wow, oh wow, there are so many books here . . . and i could get any of them . . . any of them could end up being mine . . . oh wow, oh wow" The Kindle lets me carry that moment in my purse; having thousands of tomes constantly at your fingertips is awesome.
So how has my passion for old-fashioned book collecting fared now that I've been converted to the ranks of e-readers (yes, that was an intentional re-purposing of that word)? Well, a quick analysis of my bank account reveals that paper volumes are still a very active line item on the budget: since acquiring the Kindle I have spent approximately twice as much money on physical books as I have on Kindle downloads. (No, I won't tell you exactly how much that is -- even I know when something goes from mildly self-incriminating to flat out embarrassing.)
It seems the Kindle is fueling the book fire rather than curtailing it. Why choose between the old and the new, the actual and the virtual, when I can have both, when -- oh wow, oh wow! -- any of them could be mine?
29 March 2011
13 March 2011
Two Years Later: A Running Update
Two years ago I posted about training for a 10k. Two weeks ago, I finally ran one.
This is not exactly the training plan I had anticipated, so it feels good to have finally done it. Another thing that (surprisingly) feels good is the running itself. While I do still have runs when (as I described in that initial post) every step is a battle and I believe that going for 10 more seconds might kill me, I also have runs (like today's, for example) that feel great, enjoyable even. Before I liked having just run; now I'm learning to like running.
Here are a couple other things I've learned in my "0 to 10k in 2 years" journey:
1. Slow and steady wins (or at least finishes) the race.
I've never exactly been a speedy runner, but my personality, if not my legs, tends towards the hare more than the tortoise. For a long time, there was something in me that kept pushing too hard, that felt like I was somehow cheating if I wasn't going as fast as I could. My lungs did not appreciate this approach and often felt like they were on the verge of liquefying inside my ribcage. When I finally let myself slow down, and I mean, slow way down, I found my lungs to be much more cooperative, and I think my being able to actually enjoy running now is due in no small part to this fact. The ability to process oxygen will do that, I guess.
2. I will do it . . . eventually.
I remember saying this to my mother a lot when she would nag me as a child, for example, about cleaning my room. It was a true statement back then -- I might put cleaning my room off for a seeming eternity but I would eventually do it -- and it is a true statement now. I did eventually run the 10k I set out to. There were a fair number of false starts (not to mention full stops) along the way, and I would be lying if I said that the stop-and-go didn't frustrate me at times. But in life, unlike in racing, too many false starts don't disqualify you, and things worth doing, I think, are rarely accomplished on the first try.
As I'm typing, I don't mean these thoughts to be metaphors for so many other things in my life. Somehow I think they still are . . proof, I suppose, that running is still good for my soul.
Feel free to check back in a couple more years (or maybe just a couple months this time?) for an update on the half-marathon I'm now training for.
This is not exactly the training plan I had anticipated, so it feels good to have finally done it. Another thing that (surprisingly) feels good is the running itself. While I do still have runs when (as I described in that initial post) every step is a battle and I believe that going for 10 more seconds might kill me, I also have runs (like today's, for example) that feel great, enjoyable even. Before I liked having just run; now I'm learning to like running.
Here are a couple other things I've learned in my "0 to 10k in 2 years" journey:
1. Slow and steady wins (or at least finishes) the race.
I've never exactly been a speedy runner, but my personality, if not my legs, tends towards the hare more than the tortoise. For a long time, there was something in me that kept pushing too hard, that felt like I was somehow cheating if I wasn't going as fast as I could. My lungs did not appreciate this approach and often felt like they were on the verge of liquefying inside my ribcage. When I finally let myself slow down, and I mean, slow way down, I found my lungs to be much more cooperative, and I think my being able to actually enjoy running now is due in no small part to this fact. The ability to process oxygen will do that, I guess.
2. I will do it . . . eventually.
I remember saying this to my mother a lot when she would nag me as a child, for example, about cleaning my room. It was a true statement back then -- I might put cleaning my room off for a seeming eternity but I would eventually do it -- and it is a true statement now. I did eventually run the 10k I set out to. There were a fair number of false starts (not to mention full stops) along the way, and I would be lying if I said that the stop-and-go didn't frustrate me at times. But in life, unlike in racing, too many false starts don't disqualify you, and things worth doing, I think, are rarely accomplished on the first try.
As I'm typing, I don't mean these thoughts to be metaphors for so many other things in my life. Somehow I think they still are . . proof, I suppose, that running is still good for my soul.
Feel free to check back in a couple more years (or maybe just a couple months this time?) for an update on the half-marathon I'm now training for.
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