t’s a long weekend at the beach. I’m working on my blogs (just finished Lola!) and the wife is reading her kindle. Then she frowns.

“I’m running out of power.” A deeper frown. “I didn’t bring my charger.”

Welcome to another chapter of my continuing drama – What’s wrong with eReaders.

Yeah, it’s marvelous technology. You can highlight things that catch your fancy. You can flip back and forth. You can even search through text (the great “So who the hell is this?” function). And for me, looting Project Gutenberg has been a dream.

But there are problems. My reader (a first-gen apple bequeathed to me by my dying father) has a problem with glare – when I read outside, I have all sorts of problems with getting a sudden faceful of sunlight. And then there is the power issue. Before we left for the beech, I knocked off the last page of my paper copy of Enemies. I know I’ve got a bunch of stuff in the eReader so I should be set. Even brought the cord. But I was at low power to start and, since I was reading, I didn’t have any way to repower from where I was sitting. That meant I’d read down to 20% and then, when we’d go out for a walk or errand, I’d turn the juice on. But at night, I tended to read until I was crashing, just awake enough to shut it off and put it aside. So no overnight recharge. For the last two days, I’ve been coaxing the power bar higher between reading session. And last night, I finally got it plugged in before dropping into Nemoland, so I’m up to full now. But I think this thing would be problematic over a long day on a beach chair.

As for the wife, she lucked out. Turns out her phone recharger will work in the kindle. And she’s keeping an eye on the plug, making sure it’s not overheating. Talk about Macgyver. Who’d have thought that would have worked?

But yes, keep that in mind – it’s always a good idea to keep a spare paperback around, just in case.

>>>FOR “EARLY RETYREMENT”, I GIVE YOU THE OPTION – PAPER OR PLASTIC, BOTH PRETTY CHEAP. FOLLOW THIS LINK TO THE SALES FLOOR!<<<