My children, now that I have discovered the intimacy of e books, I have been transformed as I have found a way to make them "mine".
I love books with bindings and paper in owning them and reading them, as they are intimate and I can make them mine by the frequency I impart to them. I had great deal of problem though with these e books, as on my desktop, it was just watching television and you just never can be intimate with a screen.
The discovery though of something due to necessity, as I needed something to tag along with me in work as I could not haul a tower to places, forced me to gain a old laptop as what I could write blogs on.
I have a PDF like most do and I know of the books on them, but I disliked them from the tower experience. The same held true with text documents in it would be a hassle to find my place once I stopped reading.
Upon hearing of Kindle, I rejected that as I love books and I was not spending that kind of money to read an ebook which needed electricity to view.
By God's direction though I was looking for Hatcher's Notebook, which is military ordnance volume and on PDF and in my meanderings I came across a host of ebooks which are free and based on various formats. I downloaded the text versions, but you can not keep your place, so having access to Wifi at that time, I did the big download for the Kindle reader for a laptop.
I started with this and melded with my small little Dell I have what feels as a book just as when I type here it feels just like I am writing in a journal for intimacy.
I like the format as it keeps places when I close a book and remembers them even if I open other books. The only thing I do not like is the Kindle folder does not name the books, but has numbers on them, so I have to rename them to the title in case I ever put them onto a storage device.
So I get started on sites with free books and I just begin downloading in volume. I came across a number of Winston Churchill's works and although I was unfamiliar with some, I grabbed them for some future hopeful date when I will have time to read them for pleasure in learning, instead of necessity.
One book was Ian Hamilton's March. I was not familiar with Mr. Hamiliton, but grabbed it and that is when something a few months later caught my eye in the German Kaiser was at a dinner party in England, and he mentioned a person named Sir General Ian Hamilton. I thought I had seen that name in the memory banks, so I catalogued it as it was the weekend, and began anew not wanting to not fill in that void of knowledge.
In checking my Kindle file, I found Ian Hamilton, so I presumed it was the same person. That is where my delight began.
For the Kaiser was seated across from him and German Admiral von Senden at the dinner, but the Kaiser could not figure out what was wrong with Hamilton as he was shifting around, and all pale when he spoke with him later.
von Senden gave the explanation, for this was Hamilton of the Churchill books, and this was the Hamilton who marched across South Africa against the native Boers.
What the Kaiser soon found out though, is what I had learned as the Germans were previously trying to get a Naval law passed to update their Navy. The British were using intrigue and subterfuge in trying to stop that defense necessity as they were planning war agains the Germans.
In that period, the Reichstag was not in favor of passing the Naval Law, but it happened that some English officer happened to seize two German freighters at that time, which infuriated the Germans as they were pro Boer as this was the Dutch settlers of the lowlands.
General Hamilton was a Navy man at that juncture, and it was General Hamilton's act of piracy which caused the German people to vote to rearm and protect their interests at sea.
At the time, the Kaiser was seated with the Chancellor, the head of the Navy, and champagne was called for to toast the English commander who had so greatly assisted them. In gest, the two informed the Kaiser that he should award a medal to this Englishman for all he had done for the Fatherland.
General Hamilton was terrified at that dinner that the Kaiser would find out, it was him who had seized the German vessels and that is why he was so upset.
It became worse for Hamilton as von Senden informed the General to not be concerned at all about the Kaiser being upset, and when Hamilton asked why..........the reply was for Hamilton been the factor in making the passing of the German Naval rearmament so much easier.
It is little things like that which make reading delightful as history connects from various sources. One can read of stale historians telling of things and one can watch inflamed HBO programs or PBS Biascomentaries, but there is nothing like reading of the real experiences of a person especially among the elite in witnessing them in all their flaws.
I like my ebooks, on my laptop, because it is no some Kindle gadget. The books are free and as time goes on volumes more are coming to the public stage as copyrights terminate and volunteers create the books on Mobi applications.
I could not afford nor obtain most of the books I have now due to poverty. It does though open a world where I hope that I could if wealth abounded add to those upload sites some books which only Google has on PDF like Admiral Porter's works on the American Civil War.
I like books, but do not like the headaches I got from old ones in the mites that lived in them nor did I like the thought of them being destroyed. I realize the time will come when perhaps electonics might not be available, but until then I am factoring in as much reading as I can in doing all of the other work I am usually about.
It is about time I take out the trash as that does not remove by a delete button, but for me a cheap used laptop, a library access to Wifi, and off I go getting volumes of free ebooks I never have to return. I am so busy that I forgot I have a state library card for access to their books and I have never had the time to explore there.
I think of all the time most people waste in a day, and I could do with another four hours sleep and another 10 hours to explore life in.
Gotta Jet
agtG
