A bookworm gets an e-reader

Spring seems rather temperamental this year. Though the snow has melted here this last week has been very rainy and chilly, with some excellent thunderstorms, and so I've remained inside with some good books and a steaming mugs of tea.

 

My birthday was last week and my future parents-in-law got me an e-reader. I quickly became excited about it, even though I'm a fan of the 'ol paper copy books and I hadn't given much thought about owning an e-reader. What I'm particularly excited about is that I can "borrow" a great deal of e-books from my local library and most literary classics are available through Project Gutenberg (helllloooo JS Le Fanu, Alexandre Dumas, and Jane Austen!). It's a bookworm's dream.

There was, and still seems to be, a feeling of anxiety among many that e-readers are the undoing of the book industry. I don't know the figures, but I feel that book lovers will always keep buying paper copies of books. With libraries now lending out copies of e-books, it's yet another way they've maintained their relevance and importance within their community. 

Personally, if I read a book I love that I've come across digitally through my e-reader I'm still going to go out and buy a physical copy, because you never forget your first love and your first love is worth bringing home.

Lines Written in Early Spring

I heard a thousand blended notes,

While in a grove I sate reclined,

In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts

Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link

The human soul that through me ran;

And much it grieved my heart to think

What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,

The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;

And ’tis my faith that every flower

Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,

Their thoughts I cannot measure:—

But the least motion which they made

It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,

To catch the breezy air;

And I must think, do all I can,

That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,

If such be Nature’s holy plan,

Have I not reason to lament

What man has made of man?

-William Wordsworth

1798

a spring walk in ottawa

it's been about a year since i walked in the sunshine around ottawa, camera in hand and the smell of blossoms in the air. i thought i'd share the images in celebration of spring :)