Friday, August 10, 2007

iReading

I have something over 200 books in one small space...they always surround me but I like it that way. I've always dreamed of having a proper library or of living in a library, getting locked in a library, etc., etc. Anyway, these hundreds of books were more numerous in the past and I had to (painfully) pack some away because of allergies, etc. Books do unfortunately hold a great deal of dust and other allergens (incl. mold if there is enough humidity in the air) because they are made from organic material. Luckily, we live in a digital age and many of those books that I might have bought in a used bookstore, along with all the requisite nostalgia causing mustiness, I now own in electronic form. With a large enough screen and good backlighting, I have found reading text in electronic form to be quite rewarding. Recently, Sony came out with a nice reader just for this purpose. This may be a little reminiscent of those flat pads the crew used to read from on Star Trek: TNG but, even without being a fan of new technology, anything that allows me to carry around an entire library of books in my pocket is a winner with me. Note: I carry about 180 titles on my PDA and have had no difficulty reading from it, even in dimly lit environments.

4 comments:

two crows said...

AC--
do you know how much the reader costs? would love to have one. doubt I could afford it, tho. still---

and I live in the best of all possible worlds: when I moved into my new home, I had WAY less storage than before. the community has a library, tho. there's no check-out and no due date. simply take home as many as I want and bring em back -- or not. so, I donated all but 3 bookcases and 2 suitcases full. let the library store the rest for me. :)

acourse, I've already started buying new ones. old habits die hard. **sigh**

Alien Citizen said...

So, there are two people...person A and person B. If person A is commenting on person B's blog at the same time that person B is commenting on person A's blog, do they ever meet? :-P

Anyway, the Sony Reader was about 350 dollars when it first came out last Fall and fortunately it has started to slowly but surely come down in price. It's now 50 dollars cheaper at 299.99. Still costs a pretty penny. I don't like all this digital rights management nonsense which means that you would not be able to share books you bought for your reader with other people who had readers or similar devices, but then how many people do I know that have one? Counting...

Alien Citizen said...

Oh, forgot the url for that...You can find the Sony Reader here I think and if this doesn't work, check Borders who supposedly has a deal to sell the device via their online store.

two crows said...

huh???
can't share a book on a reader but if I let you borrow a book, that's ok?
the world is absolutely insane.

thx for the link and the Borders ref. comes in handy now that I'm boycotting amazon.com.

 
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