e-books

I've gotten convinced about reading e-books on my iPad. The big reason is that it couples buying books directly to reading books.

With paper books, I don't go shopping that much, and I usually can't start reading right away. So I buy plenty of books that I never get around to reading, or I intend to read books and I never get around to reading them.

But with iBooks (the e-reading solution I'm using), I can decide "I've got some free time, and I'd like to read ", and be reading that book within five minutes. And I can do this almost anywhere; I've bought a book while riding at 60 mph. And because of this close coupling, I'm willing to pay higher prices for books, because I'm confident that I will read them. (Though the total that I spend on books probably isn't increasing as much.)

I still don't have a good solution to the problem "I'd like to read something; what shall I read?" But this particular convenience of the e-book has gotten me to read more.

New England Roadtrip, July 9, part 3: Elephant Walk

For dinner on Friday, we met up with Katherine (a friend for over three decades, now) and her partner at Elephant Walk, a French-Cambodian restaurant.

Lori had the lemongrass chicken, which the menu describes thus: "Sliced chicken breast sautéed with lemongrass, onion, red bell pepper and scallion; sprinkled with freshly roasted, crushed peanuts"


I had the Mee Siem au Poulet. I'll quote the menu: "Rice noodles sautéed in a sauce of shredded chicken breast, tofu, garlic, salted soy beans, pickled shallot, Chinese chive, bean sprouts and red bell pepper; topped with shredded omelet". It was quite tasty, but after two months, I find myself unable to remember much about how it tasted. The conversation with Katherine and Rob was by far the best part.


We had gone almost a whole day without eating at a Roadfood-listed place. But a check on the iPad guided us to a nearby Roadfood-listed ice cream shop: Lizzy's.


(On the walk to Lizzy's, I tripped on an unexpected gouge in the pavement and fell to my knees. Once I figured out what had happened, I was less afraid for myself than for the iPad I had been carrying. The iPad was unscathed, but there was some visible scarring in the iPad's case.)

Lori ordered a cup of the "chocolate orgy" ice cream, which was dark chocolate ice cream with almond toffee pieces. In our notes of the trip, she has written, "Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good." She considers this one of the best ice creams she had on the trip, in a league with Herrell's, Rancatore's, and Dr. Mike's.


I had the ginger ice cream, which was very ginger-bright and refreshing - but I would only use a few o's in my praises.


Up next: Jigger's Diner.