“Alright, my girl, so I just charged this thing overnight. Can you help me set it up?” my grandfather said, holding up a rectangular black case.
“What is it?” I questioned with interest. My grandfather is traditional in many ways, but a little adventurous when it comes to learning about how to use computers. The man forwards e-mails regularly without apology.
“A Nook Color,” he announced proudly, “Your cousin got some fancier tablet computer and gave me this thing…still have a lot of books to read, but…”
“But this is pretty cool, right?” I grinned at him.
“Yes. Your grandfather is a pretty cool guy. He’s with the times,” he joked.
We set him with up with a Barnes & Noble account and spent several minutes adjusting the settings and getting him used to the user interface:
“Oh, please get rid of that ridiculous background with the ‘N’.”
“Let me get my credit card. I don’t have any Nook gift cards…yet. My birthday’s coming up any month now though.”
“Yes, set a password because I’ll end up buying too much by accident.”
“So, this little button controls pretty much everything, yeah?”
“The screen cuts to black too quickly. These people think I can read a page in less than a minute, don’t they? Change that for me?”
“I was reading something about how to zoom in the user manual. Ooh, you just…pinch with two fingers like that? This is kind of fun.”
“Yes, link my Nook to my Facebook account, if you can. I want to be able to lend books to you. More likely, you will figure it out first and then you can lend your library to me. I’ll get more free books that way. Win-win.”
“Why doesn’t Barnes & Noble separate out a ‘free books’ section instead of making me type out the word manually in the search bar?” – Good question!
“The ‘web’ function…is a real browser? I can go online with this?! Ha! Your cousin thinks his computer is fancier, but this is really functional. Technology is really something.”
“How’s the battery life with your Nook Color? The battery drains pretty fast, but I think it’s because I leave it in sleep mode all the time. It takes so long to load up if I turn it off completely.”
I enjoyed answering his questions and watching my grandfather get acquainted with his new gadget. He worked hard all his life and found the idleness in retirement difficult to get used to, a disappointment. Discovering the Nook may provide some excitement for him, along with a new way to communicate and bond with his family. He helped me so much when growing up, especially through college. I could never repay him for his support and approval along the way, but helping him in this instance let me show some of my gratitude. I am also pleased that my love for tech is not generational, but perhaps more genetic after all.
Do you own an e-reader? What was the most challenging part about making the switch from paper to electronic? If not, what feature(s) would push you over to giving an e-reader a try?
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