Heretic? Yes. However, one thing is certain: having a Kindle Fire will not stop me from buying books. Ever. Actual books, not the virtual kind that pale and irritate on the screen when compared to the hearty, my precious, real deals I can hold, weep on without worrying about elotrocution, peel from my cheek after falling asleep on, stack creatively, place a coffee mug on, shelve with other lovely titles, worship each time I walk by my collection. I love my modest home library and anticipate its expansion into an immense home library. This will never change about me. Hopefully a love of books will never change for my son, either, who is being brought up not on Gameboys, but literature that comes in those things you have to open up. Once hooked, hooked for life, I hope.

This was my selling point: since I am in the Straits Of Revision for 2 novels, I can take my Kindle Fire-In-My-A** to coffee shops, the shady bench outside my son’s classroom as I wait to take him home, the doctor’s office, the—hm. Pedicurist (although can’t remember the last time I visited there). Bus stop (ditto). Um–Albertson’s check-out line (although if they don’t see me fuming, how will they know to open another register?). The line at the Redbox machine (but I’m so on top of Redbox I pre-order and pick up by 7a.m., thus avoiding insufferable movie-title-perusing types). Anywhere, really, when out and the free moment arises to check on my work. This way, I do not have to cart my laptop with me. Not that I do. But now I don’t have to. Even though I don’t, certainly not to the pedicurist or bus stop, which I never visit anyway. But now I am saved from having to cart it to the Redbox line I never stand in…No:

I do not need a Kindle Fire.

But it will come in handy. Especially when scrolling through poetry journals I have no intention of purchasing hard copies of (unless my poems are in them). And for me, there is A LOT of scrolling to be done. What I mean is (oh, thank you kind waiter refilling my coffee cup): revision and research, ladies and gentlemen! Ready, set———-oooh! My Facebook feed is all vibrant with color…And see? I just open the red cover and there is my KF. Close, open, close, open. And these charming things called “skins” attach to the back of KF’s. Ha ha! Nice shelves! Maybe I’ll subscribe to the New Yorker again–virtually–oooooooh. I hear music. Etc…