Saturday, March 14, 2009

And the verdict is...awesomeness

I officially absolutely love my Sony reader.

I bought Patricia Briggs's Bone Crossed today for about eleven bucks, which is reasonable enough, I guess, considering the hardback is around $25. I just finished it and I'm glad I spent the money, because it's a great book.

So I really like the reader. It feels very much like a real book, although I do miss the squashiness of a paperback. I'm hard on paperbacks when I read them. When I've read a paperback, everyone knows it's been read because the spine's all messed up, but I can't do that to the reader. But that's a minor issue. It feels so much like a regular book that I've caught myself reaching up to turn a physical page instead of hitting the next-page button. The screen looks very much like ink on paper (or at least newsprint on newspaper) and is easy on the eyes. It does require an outside light source since the screen isn't backlit, and in fact it seems to require more light than an ordinary book since the contrast between print and background isn't as high as most books, but the print is crisp and readable.

Lest you think it's just me being enthusiastic with a new gadget, last night Mom downloaded Red Mars onto the reader and tried it out. She says exactly the same things as I do about it, and she's talking about getting one of her own. Blue, in her case. Mine's red, did I mention?

7 comments:

Cate Gardner said...

Ooh, interesting. I thought you'd be hyper aware that it wasn't a book-book. Shame about the outside light source (though I hadn't considered that you may be able to read it in the dark until now - doh!), as when I'm reading in bed my torch (which is huge) keeps hitting me on the head. I need a lamp close to my bed.

Jamie Eyberg said...

I am glad you like it. My wife will be interested. She actually reads more books than me, although she says "what's the point in having a library then?" I told her it would have to supplant the paperback books in our collection if we ever got one.

K.C. Shaw said...

Cate-- I used to have a wonderful lamp that hooked over the headboard of my bed. I don't remember what happened to it (this was years ago), but it was perfect for reading. Maybe you could find something like that.

Jamie-- I still plan to buy some books in regular old paper. For one thing, a lot of older books will never be available as ebooks. And I would never take my reader certain places where a regular book is okay, like reading in the bath or outside when it looks like rain, or if it's very cold out, etc.

Carrie Harris said...

How cool! I keep debating whether or not I need one of these kinds of things. I'll have to take the awesomeness factor into consideration. :)

K.C. Shaw said...

Part of the awesomeness is that it's red. I do love red.

BT said...

Not happy - these things aren't available in Australia.

I wanted to go to the local shop and hold one in my mitts before forking out the hard earned, but I can't - they simply are not sold here.

Very green with envy.

Cate - the 700 series of the Sony comes with its own reading light.

K.C. Shaw said...

BT--I noticed when I was validating mine or whatever it is that the only options for country were US and Canada. Hopefully they'll make them available elsewhere pretty soon.