How curious to have a life in which I take Red out to herd sheep in the morning, then preside over publication of my first e-book a few hours later. I love this balance, I have never felt the need to choose one thing over another. I can seek a simpler, more spiritual life and enjoy the Apple devices that allow me to send my stories out into the world. Or write a new kind of book, presented to the world in a new way.

In fact, doing each of these things, one then the other, grounds me. It connects me to the old world, a satisfying and spiritual one, and brings me into the new. A woman e-mailed last night that she wasn’t going to get my new e-book. “Sorry,” she said a bit snarkily. “I don’t do e-books.” Why, I wondered, did she need to write that message. It’s okay, I said, no need to be sorry. I don’t do processed cheese. We each have to make our own choices.

“The Story Of Rose” is one of the most exciting things I’ve done, and I am very fond of my new Kindle, which enables me to read in bed, carry many books in my pocket, and buy books inexpensively. Yet I am about ready to go on a book tour for my next paper book, “Dancing Dogs,” a short story collection, and am soon to edit “Second Chances: Frieda And Me.” I can’t quite imagine each of those books being e-books, although there will be digital versions of both. I like living in these two worlds. I do not need to only love one or the other, only do this thing or that. I love doing “The Story Of Rose.” I love holding a new book in my hands. I choose to love both.

Bookstores don’t have to vanish, and all books don’t have to be digital or read that way. As with sheepherding and creating a kind of book, it seems satisfying and creative for me to love both, to do both. It sometimes seems that our whole world is becoming an argument. My life will not be an argument.