As some of you may recall, my mother is 88 years old. She’s always been a voracious reader and has always had problems with her eyes.

Back in the 60s, she was one of the first successful cornea transplant recipients. For all I know she might have been the first. I recall that her doctor dragged her around to medical conventions for awhile and she said doctors would line up to look at her eye and say, “That’s a beautiful eye!” and she’d say, “What about the rest of me?”

Anyway, for the past couple of years she’s been suffering from macular degeneration. There’s no cure but she’s been getting these experimental treatments – super expensive drugs shot into her eye on a monthly basis and for the most part they’re working.

But now she says she’s getting to the point where reading is starting to be a problem.

So I started thinking about the Amazon Kindle, from the perspective that they say it has six adjustable font sizes. According to them, anything you get on the Kindle – books, newspapers, magazines – can be adjusted so that they’re “large print.” So books – check. New York Times – check (“but will not include some images and tables. Also, some features such as the crossword puzzle, box scores and classifieds”). New Yorker Magazine – check (though no other mags that would be of interest to her).

Since I have no hands-on experience with the Kindle and don’t know anyone who owns one, I have no way to check this out personally. Can anyone out there comment on this?

As to whether or not she can figure out how to use one, that’s another story. She’s got a PC, does email every day and is even on Facebook. But she never even attempts to read instruction manuals. And of course not only am I not there to walk her through it, since I don’t have one, trying to walk her through it via the phone would be an uphill battle. I was thinking, she gets one, tries it out, worst comes to worst she can’t figure out how to use it, I buy it from her. Anyone else out there have a relative of similar age who’s using something like this?

Hongkie Town
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