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One day I was playing 52 card pick up on my cell phone when my niece stopped by. Without so much as a, “Hi” or a high five she went straight to her toy box and started loading books into her miniaturized plastic shopping cart. Her face was grim.
I approached cautiously. “What’s up?”
“I’m picking up supplies for my trip,” she mumbled as she tossed Where the Wild Things Are onto her growing book pile.
“Where you going?”
“Doctors for a check up.”
“Why are you packing books,” I inquired.
“Have you been to the doctors lately? There’s nothing there to read but AARP and eight year old People magazines. Britney’s old news. I want to read about The Bieb.”
“The Bieb?”
“Justin Bieber,” she proclaimed, eyes rolling.
She tossed The Lorax onto her top heavy book pile, but the weight was too great. The pile tumbled and she rumbled just like a Brown Bar-ba-loots.
“Why don’t you just download them,” I asked.
“There’s an app for that,” she questioned, head cocked to one side.
“Yes. More or less.”
“Please explain,” she said as she snatched up Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and gummed the corner.
I reached over and gently pried the book from her mouth. It almost lost a finger.
“The Mason County Library has books available to download through their Up North Digital Collection that you can access right from the library website.”
“What can I download them to?”
“Computer. Nook. Kindle. Cell phone. Almost any electronic device. And it’s free. All you need is a library card number. And you can choose from ninety different magazine titles to download from the library’s Zinio link. You can read all about The Dweeb …”
“The Bieb.”
“In the doctor’s waiting room.”
She ran over, jumped up, and latched onto my leg. The book Are you my Mommy dangling from her mouth. “Will you download it for me, Uncle Chris? Please.”
Her eyes locked onto my phone in my pocket.
“Sure,” I said as I scooped her up and tugged the book from her mouth. “Let’s go get your mommy’s phone.”
Disclaimer. My niece is only 15 months old. I interpreted her, “Madaodokcalkdlaljka” as words so what she said exactly is unknown. Also, she does not suffer from a form of book eating OCD. She’s teething and will teeth on any good book or small electronic device, such as a cell phone.
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