Wherein I express disappointment that this is not the 1790s

My mum very sweetly gave me some money for Chanukah this year (as she usually does) and I treated myself to a Kindle. I love reading and as a kid would spend days doing nothing else. The school holidays were filled with alternately going to the library and holing up in my bedroom with the resulting massive stacks of books.

Between the kids and the being an editor, reading has taken a back seat in the last few years. I didn't realise how much reading stuff all day for work would make me not feel like reading at night. It's a real shame, but I pretty much stopped entirely. The effort of holding an actual book, of turning pages, of keeping the bedside light on – these are inconsequential things but they add up to just enough to make it easier not to bother at all. And then I heard about the Kindle Paperwhite, which has a built in light. Couple that with a husband who goes to bed at about 9.30 on a work night and you're onto a winner. I can read in bed without disturbing him with either the light or the annoying rustling of pages. So I downloaded a load of books I should have read years ago but somehow never did, like Sense and Sensibility, which I am now half way through reading.

Anyway, this is a very long winded way of getting to my original point, which was that I would be very much happier if I could be a woman in 1790, living off £2000 a year and spending my days sewing. Blame Jane Austen – she makes it sound appealing (in spite of the clear absence of modern medicine, women's rights, and underwear that doesn't asphyxiate).

So far I have made five scrappy tripalong blocks and would love to put everything else aside to make the rest. I suppose I should be grateful that I can wear comfortable underwear while voting, and that my children will (hopefully) outlive me. Swings and roundabouts.