I want a Kindle and a really big book shelf. Why both, do you ask? It is because I love to read (even if it means re-reading some of my favorite books more times than I read new books). There are reasons that I want both though.
Let’s start with the Kindle. The Kindle is an e-reader that was launched by Amazon in 2007. It has evolved over the years (quite like Pokémon) and gotten better. As of now there are two basic versions of Kindle on sale. There is the basic Kindle, which uses E Ink for display of text. It is Wi-Fi enabled and has 2 GB onboard storage. One can use the Wi-Fi capabilities to read books off Amazon’s cloud storage as well. In itself it is a nifty device and one can use its buttons to change pages, books, and navigate.

The advanced form of the Kindle is the Paperwhite (which comes in two variants: Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G). It has ‘Paperwhite’ built in display which simulates the print on a white paper, and moves on to a touch screen for navigation. It is much better to change pages with the flick of your finger than clicking on a button. It too, has a 2 GB on board storage and access to cloud via Wi-Fi/3G.

One of the key advantages of the Kindles is that you get to carry your library with you. You can easily store about 100 books on them, and access more via the cloud. A number of classics are available to download for free. You can read bits of any of your books as and when you need, or read a book after the other on one of those long trips without having to lug the weight of many books. The Kindles have a wonderful battery life as well, with the Kindle having up to 1 month and the Kindle Paperwhite having up to 8 weeks of battery life.

As far as the bookshelf goes, it is part storage for my books and part sentimental value. I have quite a few books which occupy half of my cupboard (since I don’t have a book shelf). Some of them are packed in two layers of polythene and kept on the storage area just below the ceiling. I would like all those books to be released from their confines and spend time in the open. Where I can pick them up at my whims, even the text books which I harbor from my college days. It would be like giving them a proper place (apart from the place they hold inside me). Some of the books are those with which I have a physical memory, of them growing old with the increasing number of times I spent reading them.

So there you go, I want a Kindle and a really big book shelf for the practical and sentimental aspects of my love of reading.

Written for Day 2 of the Write tribe Festival of words

Seven as Lord Voldemort says, is the most powerfully magical number. It is no surprise that you have the Seven Wonders of the World, the seven seas, the seven continents, the seven octaves in music, Seven color rings of power, and so on.

The idea to use 7 as a prompt came on the Write Tribe Group, where it was proposed to hold a seven day long writing festival called ‘Festival of words’, from the 1^st to 7^th September. The only prompt was the number 7, and one can have a run with it anyway one wants.

I chose to do 7 things I want. Each day I will write about a thing/aspect that I want, why I want it and what (if anything) I can do about it or am doing.

Day 1 – I want to be able to be a fly on the wall.

Not a literal fly on the wall, but the proverbial fly on the wall who can secretly observe what is going on at a place .An important aspect would be able to transform back and forth from Human to said fly at will. I don’t want to be stuck as a fly once I transform. What good would all my observations be, if I am stuck in the form of a fly? My life as a human would be gone.

I wouldn’t mind being a literal fly on the wall too, as long as I can be an animagus (like in Harry Potter) but that would still be no guarantee as to which animal I transform into, but at least I would retain my human mental faculties when I transform. This is one of the most important aspects that needs to come along. Of what good would it be if I were to turn into a fly and then be a fly mentally as well? That instead of sitting (or is it sticking?) on the wall and observe the people I want to, I would just buzz around looking for bins and poop to sit on?

No, I need a better method. I remember that Dumbledore and Voldemort can cast dis-ilussionment charms so powerful that they become invisible. This would be wonderful, for I would retain my human form and faculties. However, if I were to get the magical knowledge and power of Dumbledore and/or Voldemort then it would be a different thing entirely. Imagine the possibilities! No looking for things for when I would lose them, I would just Accio them! No spending on transportation, as I would either fly to or just apparate at will wherever I want to. Let me not digress from topic though, If I had to write about all that I could and would if I were a wizard like the Potterverse wizards then I would probably exhaust myself.

The whole idea of becoming a fly on the wall came from the Heisenberg Uncertainty people which can be condensed in the line “It is impossible to determine accurately both the position and the direction and speed of a particle at the same instant.” This has also been referred to as the observer’s effect. When someone knows that they are being observed, they don’t act in the normal way and you don’t get to observe them in their natural state.

Of course this leads to the question as to why would I like to be the proverbial fly on the wall and observe in the first place? Because it is wonderful to see people work. When people are lost in nothing but their work and doing what they want, it is simply beautiful to watch them just be.

Written for the Write Tribe Festival of words. Seven blog posts in seven days