Before today, I had brought my iPad to work with me three times, ready to read some books over lunch. I’ve been reading the Kindle App on my phone which is great, but it suddenly occurred to me that to other people, it probably looked as though I was staring at my phone for an hour every day.

I was torn between being the type of person who stares at their phone for an hour, or the type of person who brings in their gadgety gadgets to show off.

Anyway, I took the plunge and brought the iPad in, and each of the three times I carried it into work, I ended up skipping lunch and not having any opportunity to use it.

Today that all changed, and I finally managed to read. Oh, it was heavenly. I did have a slight problem with the lights, you know, what with it being a reflective screen and all, but once I’d found a comfortable position to read in, it was all good.

The book I’m reading is not so good, but that’s another story. (Look out for a Casual Reader update coming soon!)

I did end up showing off the iPad, but only because someone questioned whether a random laptop had been left on my desk. I had to claim the gadget as my own and demonstrated some of the cool things it does. There were two interesting things I learnt from that.

1. It is very hard to demonstrate the iPad without internet access, and is the only time I wish for a 3G version rather than a wifi setup.
2. To my colleague, it was an iPad - “one of those things you can read books on.” It can do so much more, of course, but is this how it is known in the wider world?

The good news is that I will be taking my iPad into work more often now. In this instance, it was fourth time lucky.