I was doing my first ever beta read for a friend when realized I could do with a digital reading device.

My friend had written her memoir, which she’d sent to me as a PDF.  249 pages.

Reading is meant to be a form of relaxation for me, wherein I recline on my bed or couch and take a load off.  However, in order to do so with my friend’s book, I would either have to,

1. Pay to have printed
2. Secretly print it out at work and hope no one noticed, or else
3. Read at my dining table while hunched over my laptop.

Because I’m both cheap and honest, option C was what I did for about 85% of the book.  Right up until my team at work became the proud owners of a few iPads, which we were allowed to take home to familiarize ourselves with their operation.

This was just the sort of trial I like.  Prior to this, I’d visited various electronic stores to look at tablets, only to have commission-hungry sales reps swooping in for the kill before I’d had even two minutes to try out some of the different features I’d use a tablet for.

But this way, I was getting to test-drive the device at my own speed, and in my own space.

I surprised myself with how readily I took to reading a book on a tablet.

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