Thursday, October 15, 2009

That's not what I'd planned to do this morning.

Fifteen minutes after I dragged myself out of bed (late) and dressed, because I was determined to be efficient today and write 10,000 words, Mom came in and said she was having trouble with her new Sony Pocket ereader. Specifically, the Sony elibrary crap program was no longer able to put books on her reader.

I checked it out, and sure enough, it wouldn't. Microsoft ever so helpfully informed us that "A problem has caused the program to stop working." A problem. I love how they're so specific. Mom had found a workaround online, but when I tried it that didn't work either. I tried a few other things and nothing worked. Her $200 ereader was now a $200 paperweight.

She only bought the thing a few weeks ago, so she's now returned it and I've given her my ereader, which I haven't used much since I bought it this February. I'm disgusted with Sony, which can't even make its own software work properly, and I'm disgusted that I couldn't use Mom's reader on my computer because my reader was already registered to my computer. It's sort of like Sony is saying, "The reader you spent a small fortune on is not actually yours, and the books you bought in good faith are not actually yours, and while we're at it, we'll take that computer too." Lame. Sony's now on my shit list and frankly I'm already tired of my ereader, which had too many minuses for me to want to enjoy the pluses. I'll try again when the new generation of readers comes out, maybe next year.

In the meantime, I have all these paper books that work just fine and which I can reread and loan out and sell to a used book store if I like. In fact, I got my used copy of Fritz Leiber's Swords & Deviltry in the mail today. I've been wanting to read it for years but it's been out of print. I finally broke down and bought a copy, and if I weren't so close to finishing Bell-Men, I'd say bugger off to 10k day and just read instead. Lord knows I haven't written a single word all morning anyway.

8 comments:

Fox Lee said...

At least you know how to use an electronic reader! I'm still happy under my rock ; ) I consider books on tape fancy.

Cate Gardner said...

Good old paper for the win. I hope they realise their system is pants and send your Mom a new generation one.

Jamie Eyberg said...

That stinks. I was edging towards a Sony (my sister has a kindle and she has had problems with that p.o.s. as well, format issues on books she actually needs.)

K.C. Shaw said...

Natalie--Sometimes I think staying under a rock is easier. Certainly it's cheaper. :)

Cate--At least she's getting a refund, and I gave her my old Sony that she admitted this morning she likes better than hers anyway.

Jamie--I'd still rather have a Sony than a Kindle. I'm just hoping in another year or so they'll have independent readers that'll read anything.

Aaron Polson said...

Sorry to hear about the ereader, but...

Touchdown, dead trees!

(hope the writing is going well)

K.C. Shaw said...

I've written 1/10 of the day's goal. Um.

Danielle Birch said...

Good luck for 10k today.

K.C. Shaw said...

Well, I made it to 2,500 words but then Mom and I went out for pizza. I don't think I'm gonna make 10k somehow.