“The most unpopular gift my wife ever received came from me on Christmas Eve of 2001. She unwrapped the package, cracked open the stylish clamshell box and frowned at the debut model of the iPod, Apple’s magnificent music player.
It was the size of a pack of cigarettes, gleaming in white and polished stainless steel and ready to swallow hundreds of songs.
‘This isn’t for me,’ she said, sliding the whole mess over to my end of the coffee table.
‘This is for you.’ She was right. So after a few tepid protestations I took custody of the unloved player and turned it into a high-tech talisman of my inner life.
Advertisements
