Photos: Mummers And Ebook Readers.

This is a picture that I found on the occasion of the Waterley Bottom Mummers  forty years anniversary. I was a member in the late 70s and performed their Christmas play around the pubs and some invited places in Dursley and Wotton-under-Edge Gloucestershire.

Mummer's Ahoy, a photo by kurlypics on Flickr.

In this special performance I am playing the Doctor, wearing the black topper.

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 What weighs approx 170 grams and can hold over 1400 books?

The answer is a Kindle Ebook Reader.

I was lucky enough to get one as a Christmas present and so having used it regularly for the last two months, I feel able to justify giving an opinion upon it.

First up, what are its Disadvantages?

1 It can never replace the touch and feel of a 'real' book. It lacks the visceral  sense of the pages. It has no discernible smell or odour and always has the same text, whatever subject you are reading.

2 It can be sometimes a tad tiresome navigating between pages; to read text and then refer to a location by use of a map, for example. To overcome this you have to either create an electronic bookmark, or refer to a page number which you have to input each time.

3 You can't guarantee to always get your book; certain genres such as poetry may not have full artist catalogues; but with totals approaching one million, as long as you stick to the mainstream and the classics, you won't go far wrong. As I write this, I have never failed to find the book of my choice.

The  Advantages:

1 It's perfect for carrying on holiday or on a trip. You can take a virtual library in your case and hardly take up any space.

2 The font/typeface and size is the same for all books, regardless of their volume. Furthermore the text is highly visible, whatever the conditions and that includes bright sunshine.

3 You can purchase a book 24/7.  With a Wifi system, home hub for example, your book will download  in a maximum time frame of two minutes. Last night (8/3), I downloaded  " David Copperfield " by Charles Dickens, for free in about 20 seconds. In fact, until you try it out, you won't believe the speed of delivery.

4 If you are not sure about purchasing a particular book, you can for free,  download a sample chapter. A very useful way of keeping to your budget. If you purchase a book by mistake, there is a short length of time in which you can retract your decision.

5 All of your purchased books are automatically saved and stored on Amazon's servers. This means in practice if you lose your Kindle, or it becomes damaged, you can with new device recover your library.

At this juncture, may I strongly recommend that you place an entry password upon your Kindle, to prevent unauthorised  eyes viewing the contents and in the case of theft or loss stopping the person from adding to your library at your expense.

So, I hope you can see that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages and in my case I give my device four ****.

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I thought I'd finish this blog with this rather elegant painted egg, which along with many more are to be found at this time in the parks and galleries of  London.

Have a good week and enjoy the annual Cheltenham National Hunt Festival. Be lucky.

Ciao4now,

Ck.