For as far back as I can remember I’ve always loved to read. Nothing like the pages of a book, whose texture, smell and words provide food for our imaginations, feed us knowledge and take us on adventures to exotic locations. To curl up with a good book is my idea of bliss.

I arrived in Ecija with two books that I’ve long since finished and as there are no books, newspapers or magazines available in English I’ve been experiencing withdrawal symptoms as my reading has been limited to ESL text books which are not exactly conducive to relaxing.

In desperation I decide to consider a Kindle. Unfortunately I know very little about these devices as I’ve always scoffed at the notion of one. Cap in hand I email my clever friend Denise in Paris, a prolific Kindle user, for some advice on what to buy. Quick as a flash comes the reply that perhaps I could download an app for my phone instead of buying an actual Kindle and if I set up an account with Amazon I can buy from there. Yes, that Denise is a smart cookie!

I find an app and download. I already have an Amazon account – how simple is this? Wrong! That’s the easy part. The wretched app set itself to Spanish and I’m locked into the Spanish store. No matter that I spend 3 days of frustration using up my preciously limited data package I still cannot get the damn thing to show me books in English nor can I buy from a UK or US store. I have no idea why not as I can buy hard copies no problem but the moment I click Kindle version it chucks me back to Spain. Grrrrr. I resign myself to having to go to Seville in search of the English bookshop.

This morning I woke up to the realisation I’ve been here a month tomorrow and my data pack will renew, so I decided to have one last shot at the Kindle Store. Amazing I managed to bring up English books via the Spanish site and yes, I have just purchased my very first electronic book. It won’t be the same as falling asleep with a ”real” book as I’ll have to be careful not to doze off and drop the phone but hey, it’s way to feed my reading habit.

Michelle