To My Dearest Friends by Patricia Volk

I just got back from China last week. I was there for a week on some business in Hangzhou, and then stayed a few extra days to visit friends in Shanghai.

Before I left, it occurred to me to buy a Kindle, because it seemed like the perfect device for this sort of trip: one which would include at least 30 hours of travel time, none of which on red-eyes. 30 hours is a lot of books, and I didn't want to fill up half my suitcase with books. But $359 is pretty big expense, and it's not something I necessarily need. In the end, I bought the Kindle with the knowledge that I could return it within 30 days, and well, because I just wanted it so badly.

The Kindle is really as amazing as it advertises to be. In your hand, there is nothing surprising about it. If you have seen the descriptions of it at Amazon, you know all about it already: thin, light, easy to read, easy to use, EXTREMELY easy to load with books. Turned out my biggest problem was deciding which books to buy for it.

I don't buy books very often and I'm not very good at it, I realize now. The problem is that I'm overly risk-averse. I don't want to buy something if I'm not sure if I'll like it, especially if it's non-returnable. I get most of my books at wholesale cost, as review copies, free through Bookmooch, or from the library. But when I'm actually going to shell out money from my own pocket to buy a book, I want some reassurance that it's going to be worth the money. I know, this is a completely unreasonable position (it also might explain why I generally hesitate to go to the movies too). But there it is. I have issues.

Compounding the problem is the feeling that I'm not getting a tangible object in return for my money when I buy a Kindle book. I'm buying an experience. Sure, it's a reproducible experience, unlike movies or a restaurant meal, but still, it's not tangible.

Anyway, it took me a while to decide what to buy to load up my Kindle for the trip, and cost was a factor. I bought Stephen King's UR ($2.99), Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff ($8.76), and To My Dearest Friends by Patricia Volk ($9.99). I also downloaded a few Harlequin romances becuase they were free, and His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik, which was also free. I think I actually enjoyed the free books best, and not because of the price. I really did like them best.

To My Dearest Friends was on my wishlist already because I thought the premise was so intriguing:

Two weeks after Roberta ‘Bobbi’ Bloom dies, her lawyer calls her two best friends, Alice Vogel and Nanny Wunderlich, to his office. Why? Because Bobbi has given them keys to a safety deposit box. And now the lawyer has a letter for them from Bobbi. Alice and Nanny–who have nothing in common but their friendship with the deceased–go to the bank. In the box, they find another letter. A love letter. To Bobbi. Undated. With no further instructions.

Sounds great, huh? What I didn't know was that, at its core, it was a story about women in their late middle-age coming to grips with the twilight of their lives. Totally not my demographic. I suppose it was a good enough book, but I couldn't relate to a second of it. And @#%&*, I just spent $9.99 to download it. Now I can't sell it to a used bookstore, Bookmooch it, give it to someone who might like it, or even donate it. It was a total loss of $10.

This is too much pressure. After spending $359 (plus another $30 for the cover) on the thing, now I have to worry about spending more money just to use it.

I have some other issues with the Kindle as well. Firstly, its proprietary format: while it wasn't a deal-breaker for me, it sure doesn't make me love it. I wrestled a bit with uploading the pdf of Stephenie Meyer's partial manuscript of Midnight Sun to it, with success, but that's about the extent of its capabilities. Also, in the end, I think I really enjoy holding a book and turning its pages. I also like having my books lined up on my bookshelf, their spines giving me just as much pleasure as their contents.

The Kindle's two biggest advantages are its capacity to hold a huge number of books in a very small device, and its instant gratification in acquiring a new book. While these are fun and useful under certain circumstances, they aren't enough for me, or for its $359 price tag. Once E finishes reading Bad Monkeys, I'm going to return it.

To My Dearest Friends by Patricia Volk