Remember that you bought a Kobo at a thrift store six or so years ago.
Tear apart your apartment to find it.
Plug it in to charge. Realize that one of the reasons why you haven’t started using it is because the case is rubberized, and the rubber has started decomposing, giving off a sticky substance that you don’t find all to pleasant to touch and leaves an annoying residue on your hands.
Decide to try to repair the Kobo.
Apply isopropyl alcohol to toilet paper and rub the device. Stop going back and forth to the bathroom to get more toilet paper. Apply isopropyl alcohol to a rag. Scrub vigorously.
Hey, look, a patch where you’ve rubbed off all of the coating! But this is taking absolutely forever.
Search it up. Read that others recommend removing the back cover, letting it sit in brake fluid for a long time (?!!?), and using that to strip the coating.
Remove back cover by gently prying open the seam using a guitar pick. Be very careful with this step — you may break the screen.
After receiving a helpful suggestion, try acetone. Realize that it doesn’t work as well as the isopropyl. Receive a headache from the fumes.
Score the cover with the same guitar pick to disrupt the rubber coating. Alternate with an application of isopropyl with the rag.
Realize you should start taking pictures of the process.
Attempt to do the same by scraping with an X-ACTO knife.
Keep scrubbing. You’re not getting anywhere. Cover the back cover of your Kobo with hockey tape.
Hey, that actually looks pretty great!
Reattach cover. Decide “in for a penny, in for a pound” — cover front as well. Get to that part where the hockey tape is sometimes stitched together during manufacturing, for some reason. Decide to keep that too.
Doesn’t that look great? And by “great,” I mean like something someone would want to put on a fridge. Great work.
