Mr. Nobody

This is a poem I remember from when I was a child. I'm so happy that I found it again!

 
By Anonymous

I know a funny little man,
As quiet as a mouse,
Who does the mischief that is done
In everybody's house!
There's no one ever sees his face,
And yet we all agree
That every plate we break was cracked
By Mr. Nobody.

'Tis he who always tears our books,
Who leaves the door ajar,
He pulls the buttons from our shirts,
And scatters pins afar;
That squeaking door will always squeak,
For, prithee, don't you see,
We leave the oiling to be done
By Mr. Nobody.

He puts damp wood upon the fire,
That kettles cannot boil;
His are the feet that bring in mud,
And all the carpets soiled.
The papers always are mislaid,
Who had them last but he?
There's no one tosses them about
But Mr. Nobody.

The finger marks upon the door
By none of us are made;
We never leave the blinds unclosed,
To let the curtains fade.
The ink we never spill; the boots
That lying round you see
Are not our boots -- they all belong
To Mr. Nobody.

Source: The Golden Book of Poetry (1947)

E-reader or Hard Copy?

Everyone has an opinion and a preference these days about whether it’s better to have an e-reader or to stick with the old fashioned hard copy of books… here is my take on the benefits of each. For the most part, it’s to be understood that if I list something as a benefit of one, it’s a disadvantage for the other one. 

Kindle Fire:
1.  It will hold a whole bookcase worth… heck… a whole library’s worth of books! All in one little device about the size of a regular paperback.
2.  If I run across a word I don’t know, all I do is touch that word and it will bring up a general definition, with options to go to a full definition.
3.  I can find hundreds of free books to download to it. Not just the classic masterpiece books like Tom Sawyer or Anne of Green Gables, or authors like Shakespeare or Charles Dickens. I mean new books, in all the genres I enjoy, by current well-known authors as well as new authors waiting to be discovered.
4.  I can listen to my music right from the Kindle while I read. No more carrying around a walkman, CD player, mp3 player or ipod along with (can you tell I’ve been reading for a lot of years? LOL). I just carry one device that has it all!
5.  The screen is lit for easy reading in the dark! No more reading at night in the car by the headlights from the car behind us, I don’t have to leave the bedroom light on and disturb the hubby’s sleep, or buy multiple cheap reading lights (and/or batteries) and then fight with it to get it to cover the whole page, only to bump it and move it out of place when I turn the page, or fall asleep reading, as I do so many times, leaving the lamp on all night or the reading light batteries to burn out before morning. The Kindle will shut off on it’s own after I’ve dozed off.
6.  If I highlight a sentence or paragraph, it’s not permanent. I can undo it without ruining the book.
7.  I can select a portion of a book and share it on Facebook or Twitter. This is a wonderful feature because so many times I find a powerful sentence or paragraph in a book that I wish I could share with the world.
8.  If I’m reading something and God speaks to me through it, I can add a note to the sentence or paragraph without writing all around the edges or making a mess of it.

Paperback Books (or hardbacks):
1.  When I’m browsing my bookshelves, I can pick up a book and read the back to remember what it’s about. This is really convenient when I don’t know what I feel like reading, or when I’ve acquired a lot of books that looked interesting when I first found them, but forgot what they were about by the time I go to read one.
2.  Sometimes when I’m reading, I will remember something I had read in a previous chapter. With a paperback, I can hold a finger where I am, and then flip back through and skim pages to find the piece I wanted to reread for clarification.
3.  If I fall asleep reading and it falls out of my hand,, no damage is done.
4.  I can use a pretty bookmark to mark my page.
5.  It’s easy to let someone else borrow a book I think they would enjoy, or just give mine away if I don’t want it anymore.
6.  Hard copy books don’t require a battery or charger.
7.  If I’m studying, I can lay out all the books open to the pages I need. I don’t have to close one book to open another, I can do side-by-side comparisons.

So from this, although I really like the benefits of both, my definite favorite is the Kindle Fire. I think that at least four of the paperback advantages will eventually be ‘fixed’ in the Kindle Fire, and when it is, I’ll own it!