Tuesday 29 March 2011

Heaven is an e-reader

It’s official: I am now a dedicated e-book reader!

After declaring on more than one occasion that I simply wouldn’t know what to do without the feel of a ‘real’ book in my hands – or the sensation of actually turning the pages – I’ve discovered the wonderful world of the e-reader. And I’m addicted. I’m not going to say which one I own as I’m doing my best not to sound like an advertisement. :o)

While I would obviously like to play the green card here, I have to admit my love of my e-reader is entirely selfish (not that I’m not happy to be doing my bit, of course). As someone who divides their time between England and Bulgaria, this form of reading is the perfect medium for me.

And here’s why: at present, a trip to my nearest bookshop consitutes a six-hour round trip – and is no guarantee of success if I’m hunting down a particular volume; lugging a groaning bag of tightly packed volumes through airport security; or hoping against hope that the courier has finally worked out where I live and will soon be delivering my book order. (You may find the latter amusing, but I’m still waiting for a parcel sent in October… unfortunately, this emergency package also contained a box of Toffifee.)

The other thing I love about my e-reader is the sheer portability of it – barring the worrying sheen of moisture that steam from a particularly long bath (my excuse for sneaking another few chapters) will cause, I’d say this thing works just about everywhere. It’s even taken to accompanying me on the daily dog walk.

As far as I can tell, its only drawbacks include a real risk to personal relationships and 3G capability, which means that you can literally purchase books anywhere and at anytime – which bodes ill for the bank balance. The worrying part is that books feel free when you’re acquiring them via a couple of clicks rather than physically parting with your hard-earned cash. Well, they do to me anyway…

I’ve also found being able to read my own work via this medium really helpful too – things look a lot better in this format and you can easily make proofing notes etc and skip between chapters, so you can get a real feel for how your MS flows.

Now that I have one, I can’t really see any argument against such a medium. Bar one: if everyone was using an e-reader, I think I would really miss being able to sneak a look at what everyone else on the train is reading on the morning commute…

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