Sunday, December 12, 2010

Ebooks

As you know, I don't have an e-reader.  I've looked at three which are owned by different friends.  None of them thrilled me (the readers, not the friends).I think it might be the e-ink.  I've come to expect a certain level of brightness from handheld devices. I installed a pdf reader on my phone but the screen was too small to accommodate my need for larger font.  I spent several hours at the airport scanning the pages back and forth while I tried to read an e-book.

In the end, I've resorted to reading on my laptop.  Not ideal but it has a tad more flexibility than the desktop computer. My laptop is six years old and weighs as much as a small child.  It's not exactly conducive to a quiet read in bed before sleep.

If it's all that much hassle, why bother with e-books, then? Because both Bob Mayer and Christine Merrill have books available in that format only. As their books are well crafted, exciting page-turners I refuse to let technology keep me from my entertainment.

The links take you to two books that have kept me in front of my computer screen, jonesing at work and suffering eyestrain in the airport because they were compelling reads.  Isn't that what all readers want, regardless of format?

Happy reading!

1 comment:

  1. I've been playing with mine this week and I've finally figure out what it is about e-books that bothers me most: not enough words on a page. In a book, you get two pages worth of words at a time; in an e-book reader, you only get one page. You can get quite a few words on that page if you make the font small enough; but basically, you're hitting that "next page" button every two seconds or so. You can probably get carpal tunnel or something from the repetitive stress.

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