Thread: I-gadgets, I-quit

​​Into my favorite book store
I strolled, hoping to explore
the newest novels in paperback
nicely displayed on a book-rack,
to my surprise, what did I find?
Contraptions that are designed
for the technologically adept
and in that world, I am inept.

These things called Kindle or Nook
are only electronic books,
or gizmos lacking printed pages
like something out of the space ages,
along with I-phones, I-pads,
plus ​androids and all the latest fads,
books these e-books may supersede
but save my hard-bound books to read.

Here here!

My technical revisions would be: 1) "Kindles and Nooks" instead, to help the flow; and 2) in a world that I am inept.

You have I-nspired me to I-write an I-poem about these terrible I-things. People are detached from the reality around them while claiming to be more attached to some kind of shared-conscious social existence.

I hate social media, it is anti-social to those around them.

Thanks for sharing. I also have trouble with ebooks, but we are essentially writing epoems here, and for that reason, able to share with many. That is one bright side.

Aways check! The Kindle edition of Tina Fey's autobiography, Bossypants, is more expensive than the paperback... The inversion in the second line seems a touch contrived, love the rest of it.

Tina Fey actually expects us to care enough to read her autobiography? More likely, someone thought they could make a dump truck full of money and offered her a book deal.

Sad what this world has become. How marketing works is to create stars of the Kardashians and others who don't really matter, then make a pile of money from ignorance. This stuff isn't literature.

Originally Posted by JRBurgher

Tina Fey actually expects us to care enough to read her autobiography? More likely, someone thought they could make a dump truck full of money and offered her a book deal.

Sad what this world has become. How marketing works is to create stars of the Kardashians and others who don't really matter, then make a pile of money from ignorance. This stuff isn't literature.

Well that's a remark of someone with an axe to grind, though about what I am not sure - The Sunday Times, amongst others, nominated it as one of the Autobiographys of the Year - I suggest you acquire some little working knowledge of the work before making ad hominem condemnations. 57 nominations and 22 awards in 10 years for both acting and writing doesn't speak of an incompetent. She's been a writer on Saturday Night Live for 14 years, wrote the screenplay for Mean Girls, and scripted and appeared in multi-award winning 30 Rock - Clearly a writer not worth reading..... Unless you are a professional of course and prepared to pay her a lot of money to write for you.

Originally Posted by JRBurgher

My technical revisions would be: 1) "Kindles and Nooks" instead, to help the flow; and 2) in a world that I am inept.

Thanks JRBurgher. I do agree with changing to "Kindles and Nooks" to help the flow of the poem. I'll keep the words "and in that world, I am inept." If I were to say, "in a world that I am inept", suggest to me I'm "not with it" at all in the world.

Bloggsworth,
Thanks for your insight. I'll have to work on the 2nd line.

​​Into my favorite book store
I strolled, truly hoping for
the newest novels in paperback
nicely displayed on a book-rack,
to my surprise, what did I find?
Contraptions that are designed
for the technologically adept
and in their world, I am inept.

These things called Kindles or Nooks
are only electronic books,
or gizmos lacking printed pages
like something out of the space ages,
along with I-phones, I-pads,
plus ​androids and all the latest fads,
books these e-books may supersede
but save my hard-bound books to read.

iApprove.... but I've played with it to make you think slightly differently - You are at liberty to ignore all ideas. Lines 5-8 need smoothing.


I went into my favorite store
very much in hope, looking for
the latest books in paperback
in neat display upon a rack,
to my surprise, what did I find?
Contraptions that are designed
for the technologically adept
and in their world, I am inept.

These things, Kindles, Nooks
are just the new electric books,
gizmos lacking printed pages
paid for out of hard-earned wages,
along with android phones and swish I-pads,
we credit card the latest fads.
E-Books proper books may supersede
but save my hard-bound books to read.

I fear that our future children and grandchildren may grow up in a world not knowing what fun libraries can be. To blindly go into a section completely outside of one's regular world and spot books about astrology, woodworking, gardening, famous actors of the 1920's... it was there that I stumbled upon Jack Kerouac's On The Road, although I was too young to fully comprehend it at the time. I read biographies of many of our presidents, Chinese dynasties, and early jazz artists. It broadened my world, and although one can be well-read without setting foot in a library, there is no equal for the sheer volume of strange and wonderful things one can browse on a rainy afternoon.

Bravo, Cindy! This is clever and humorous both, most of us over the age of 40 can identify with this. Your title is perfect.