Then, the other day, I got an e-book reader.

The e-book reader's "electronic ink" enables the gadget to display contents just as books or newspapers do. So it saves me from eyestrain. It can also do something printed materials can't: allow me to instantly view word definitions and search for specific content.

As you may have guessed, I have in my digital Dictionaries Collection all the best English and English-Chinese dictionaries that I could find, plus a bilingual concise encyclopedia.

When I read A Wet Sunday in a Country Inn by Washington Irving, I tapped the word forlorn, and Merriam-Webster provided the meaning in a split second. By default, this word is automatically stored in My New Words list for my further review.

What a "forlorn" figure I would appear to be if I read the printed version in the subway, and then suddenly I found myself having to grab a dictionary to look up the new word.

My edition of the e-book reader does not come with any functions that are not related to reading activities, so I won't be tempted to check mails and messages, or play games.

Once in a while I do miss the feeling of real print, thumbing the pages, or smelling the odor of genuine books. My fancy now is that at a serene night, I hold a Kindle or its like, and read, while a woman in red sleeves readies a power charger, instead of burning incense.

She, too, adapts and changes fast.