Going virtual

A few months ago already, I took a deep breath and went for it: I downloaded the Kindle app on my phone and started discovering the intimidating world of e-books. For someone who loves books and considers reading the key intellectual activity and hobby in her life, you have to understand that this was a leap of faith.

Books... I love everything about them: their shapes, their covers (not all of them! This reminds me of Carrie going to the bookstore and coming out totally depressed by horrendous covers, but still, you know, that's part of the fun), the texture of the paper, their smell - oooh the smell of books, that's a trip to dreamland alright! - and the world they jealously covet until you take the time and patience to turn each page, maybe next to a warming fireplace or while lying under the scorching sun with your feet in the clear summer water of some idyllic beach... Books move at their own pace, they belong to an intimate world that requires time and concentration. And these are just a couple of reasons explaining my unlimited passion for these companions...

The description above is necessary, you see, to underline how big a leap of faith mine was, shifting from paper-based books to virtual books. If I did jump, this does not mean that I enjoyed jumping... Obviously, it would be wrong of me to judge e-books by the cover while reading them on a tiny phone screen (thus, tiny cover...), but I thought the (free) app would be a good start, just to test my patience and the usefulness and accessibility of it all, devices included. Still, this being said, I do feel that shifting from the traditional paper stories to virtual supports simply does not feel comfortable for me. I feel that I have lost part of the pleasure of reading, not to mention that shifting to e-books means that they too have been absorbed by the quick pace of the Internet, fast-forwarded at high-speed in a de-materialized future. I find this hard to accept even though the change may be fun and certainly kindles curiosity. This is the whole (sad) point for me: e-books are anecdotal. Given the choice, I would not think twice and step into a library and just leaf through the good old pages!

This timid and not so successful first attempt needs to be mitigated though by the recent experience with e-magazines. Possibly this easy-going format for short-term information and reading is more suitable - for me, that is - to de-materialization. Possibly too, I did start reading e-magazines from an author I know and admire via his lovely blog. I guess that makes the leap much more enjoyable.

This brings me to sharing with you the utter pleasure of hitting the Next and Previous buttons while drooling over each and every recipe and article of Sweet Paul Magazine. The food shots are amazingly vibrant, the articles entertaining and rich, and the recipes deeply inspiring. The final result is a professional look and feel and a gorgeous issue. You can subscribe to the e-magazine (or newsletter, as you best see fit) and leaf through it online or just download it for future reference... The pages are alive with ideas, colors and...smells that hit you the moment you flip your laptop screen open!

Given this first happy digital encounter, I just subscribed to another newsletter... Again, I am a regular visitor of this blog and highly appreciate every word of it (even though I do not always agree with the US look on Paris life) and the overal quality and relevance of detailed information it provides - not to mention the humor. My guess is, if all this is kept alive in the e-world, I will soon find another addictive read on the computer!

Am I going virtual or what?

Credit: SweetPaul Magazine as it appears on the Daydreamer's computer