Child_art,_momTechies rejoiced over the touchscreen when it first hit the e-reader market—no more ugly buttons! But those buttons served a purpose for the newbie crowd, in that they conveniently marked off the device’s functions.

So, how are the non-techies faring in today’s world of smooth, flat tablets? Well, last weekend, I side-loaded about 50 books onto my mother’s new Kobo Aura for her. And then I got this email:

“Jo – thanks so much for loading my Kobo. But a question. I accidentally touched on a book which then gave me the title page and the book and I can’t figure out how to get back to the main page so I can see the titles in the rest of the library. How do I do it? Love. Your un-techie mother”

Fortunately, the Beloved was off sick this week, but feeling just better enough to be bored at home. I’m told he went over there for coffee and a visit, and while he was visiting, showed her how to tap the screen to bring up the virtual buttons. Problem solved!

Art credit: Here. Nope, that isn’t Joanna or her mom in the image, but, hey, it reminds us of the time when dependencies were in the other direction. – D.R.

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