A Reader Dilemma

Last summer I was invited to go to Europe with my husband to plan a trip for his employer.  For the past 22 years we’ve taken at least one trip a year.  I’ve learned I don’t do well on long airplane trips: the cramped space, stale air and nothing to do makes me fidget.  Flights to Europe are difficult because I can never sleep as we fly east.   I always take plenty of reading material.  This is the time I wish I weren’t such a fast reader. As we planned to fly from Detroit to Toronto, and onto Athens I was ready.  I had many new books on Kindle, and I don’t mind rereading books if I have to.  All plans changed when my Kindle would not work.  Suddenly I was facing 10 or more hours in the air, multiple 2 hour flights between destinations and several days at sea with nothing to read!  After searching the internet for suggestions and fixes I tried multiple ideas.  One even included me untwisting a paperclip, to press some unseen spot.  It didn't work. Several posters suggested pressing buttons and flipping switches.  No luck.  I accepted the inevitable, I'd have to pay airport prices for many books.

The flight to Athens was long.  I read long into the night. I kept trying to find a magic combination of Kindle reboots.  Nothing!   We finally landed and were escorted to our hotel.  Exhausted we headed to our room for a quick nap.  Ever hopeful, I used my converter to plug in my Kindle charger.  I flipped the on/off switch for the hundredth time.  It came back to life! 

For the rest of the trip I was able to use my reader, but I never really trusted that it would work.  Several times it would shut down in the middle of a book, I’d turn it back on to find I had to flip through the book to find my place.   A week or two after we returned from Europe my Kindle died for the final time.  Well timed, our kids had just bought me a new one for my birthday.