A Kindle story: Riding the D.C. Metrorail
You never know who will be drawn to Kindle, and for what reasons. I’m reminded of that by this post from KindleBoards member geoffthomas:
I was riding on the WashDC Metrorail, commuting home last night, and had a discussion with a family of tourists. My seatmate was a young woman with her perhaps 7 year-old daughter on her lap (the train was crowded). Dad and son were standing.
They noticed my Kindle 2 and asked about it, so of course I was off to the races and told them about its many features and how much I liked it. The little girl said in a very happy voice, “Oh how nice, it would be perfect for me”.
I felt the immediate need to explain that it was not a toy (I did NOT say that). But I did say that it was expensive – $350.00. And that it was really only justified for heavy readers.
They explained that the little girl has asthma. Like many children with it, she limits her physical and outside activities. So she reads a lot. AND…wait for it…when she opens a book, she almost immediately starts to cough. Especially with library books.
Wow. You could have knocked me over with a feather. It never occurred to me.
So here is a little girl for whom this device would not be too expensive at all. In fact when you think about it, it is cheap. And it has the chance to change and enhance her life.