Let me just start with the fact that I really like my Kindle. But using it in public in New York City can sometimes be rather uncomfortable. Usually, my rare burst of “free reading” time gets sucked up by some curious passerby asking me if I like my Kindle. I’d like to reply, “Yes, I like my Kindle. As you can see, I’m using it quite actively right this moment.” But I don’t. I end up talking about the pros and cons of the little reader and having a conversation with some total stranger instead of finishing another breezy, if overwrought, chapter of The Lost Symbol.

Then there are the nasty looks. The embittered and recently unemployed NY publishing establishment (authors/editors/publishers) who seem to think that I’m single-handedly responsible for destroying the economics of their industry.

And there’s the older generation who roll their eyes, throw up their arms, and demand, “What, you don’t like books?” I try to answer in the nicest possible way, “I do. That is why I have a Kindle.”

And of course there’s the conspicuous consumption thing. Carrying a Kindle is like advertsing the fact that you have $259 of disposable income. Not exactly a recession-friendly message.

So I came up with a recession-friendly solution: A homemade $1 Kindle case that not only protects the device from the elements, but also its reader from the hazards of using it in public.  Here’s how I made it:

I drew an outline of the Kindle into Chapter 2, and used a straightedge to cut to what I thought was roughly the correct depth. I placed a piece of cardboard at the bottom to avoid cutting into the back pages.

I then ran some glue along the inside to hold all the pages together.

Thanks Von Miklos. Something tells me that you when you lovingly wrote Make-It Yourself in 1956 you didn’t think that some guy in 2009 would hack it up to stick an electronic reading device into it.  Sorry.

I tried to purchase your book through the Kindle store, but it was not one of the 360,000 titles currently available. But wouldn’t that have been an awesome meta-moment?  Reading an electronic copy of a embedded into the carved out paper pages of its out-of-print edition.

Don’t fret book collectors. This copy has enough water damage for The Strand (and they  know how to value books) to stick it on their $1 book shelf. I consider the nostalgia-inducing musty old book smell as a bonus. Sometimes, I get a whiff of it and think that I’m actually reading a book that was printed on paper. Those were the days.

Of course, it can be easily customized with different book covers, especially if you don’t want people to always thing that you are reading a crafty DIY book from the 50′s. But that depends on the type of people who want to attract (or repel).  And, no, mine’s not for sale. You’re going to have to Make-It Yourself.

Where’d it go? From the outside, it looks like an ordinary hardcover book (about crafts). And now, I can finally read in peace.

Another Daily What reblog. But this Viagra ring was too funny to resist. If you don’t need it yet, someday ya will. (Hopefully not too soon!) [Dadjunk does not condone the recreational use of Viagra. This repost is for entertainment purposes only. It is not mean as an endorsement of any product or associated habits]

Posted via web from Chad