I would never recommend a book to my dad. That would be like him recommending that I watch some sporting event. Other than golf magazines, he's just not a reader. Once upon a time he liked westerns but his eyes are about shot and it's just too much work for an activity he just wasn't married to anyway.
Now when he got here for this visit he was asking me about tablets. He's been thinking of getting one and wanted some recommendations for that. So we talked briefly about different options and I explained about wi-fi and routers and whatnot and we went on with our visit.
Then I read him that bit from the Scalzi book and set down my Kindle. He picked it up, and started reading it. I showed him how to go back to the beginning, adjust the font and the brightness and wondered how long that would last.
Holy crap he read the whole thing. He loved the Kindle (I have a Paperwhite). So then he started talking about getting a Kindle so I said, well, you should probably get a Kindle Fire HD because you can read on it and do tablety stuff. I had him read on our iPad to show him the difference between a tablet and e-ink and he liked them both. Knowing the Kindle Fire has higher resolution that the iPad we have, I'm sure that'll more than do the job for him when it comes to reading. And if he wants he can get his golf magazines on that as well.
I have no idea if he'll really get one but I tell you, if he does I'll get him the entire rest of the Old Man's War series and some of his favorite westerns and anything the hell else he wants because that was the best present I got. Sitting around and talking about a book? With my Dad? It was just great.
So thank you John Scalzi and Amazon for a great Christmas!
