Friday, February 14, 2014

Putting the E in Reading

I have finally made friends with reading electronically. I had to go through a number of devices first though. I started out with a Kindle. I think it might have been the second model, but it was clumsy, easy to hit the page turner thingie on the side by mistake and had a very inefficient way to navigate using a roller that never stopped where I wanted it to. Add to that an irate customer service woman in India who started yelling at me because I wasn’t doing what she told me to with the Kindle fast enough (because of that inefficient roller thing) and my not liking the device makes perfect sense.

I tried a Nook next. The battery ran down so quickly that every time I let it sit for a few days and went to use it, the battery was so dead it wouldn’t even go on if it was plugged in. The screen was grayish and I seemed to be way too conscious that I was reading on a screen. I never got lost in what I was reading.

I stepped up to a Nook tablet. All the colors and extra features were nice. I could have a Nook app and a Kindle app on it, so could access all the books I had in either library. I could check email and surf the web. But it was big and a little slippery. Not comfortable to hold and read, or to set on my lap and read.

My smart phone also has Kindle and Nook’s apps, which is very nice and makes both library accessible all the time, so I’m never without a book. But since I was going back and forth between the Nook, the Nook tablet and my phone, I kept losing my place every time I went to another device. It didn’t help that there aren’t really page numbers. In a paper book, you at least have a visual where you are. I ended up spending all my reading time trying to find where I’d left off.

And then I got an Apple Ipad mini with a case that can make the tablet stand up. It took some getting used to, but I found the Nook and Kindle apps worked just fine on it. And somehow it sinks up what I’m reading between my phone and it. So, no more losing my place. I’m not sure what it will do if I go back to the Nook tablet or the plain Nook.

I don’t know if it’s the quality of the screen or being able to read on the tablet while it sits on a table at a comfortable angle, but for first the first time I am enjoying reading on a screen.

I love that I was watching a PBS show with a doctor talking about her booke Mind Over Medicine and when the show was over and I wanted to read her book, I had it in front of me without having to brave the Chicago snow and cold. Within a few minutes, it was there in the Kindle app waiting for me to start.

I am not forsaking paper. I want it all. I want to read both ways. Aren’t options the best?

9 comments:

Planner said...

I'm glad you found devices that allow you to enjoy ebooks. I took to ebooks right away, even on that clumsy first generation Kindle with the roller thing. In fact, it was your books that made me fall in love with the Kindle when I instantly and magically purchased and downloaded your second crochet mystery after finishing the first.

The Kindle has come a long way since that first ground-breaking but flawed model.

Welcome to the world of ebook reading!

Betty Hechtman said...

Planner, I think having a color screen makes a big difference. I'm glad that e-readers helped make you a fan.

Ellen said...

I was giving a talk at a con once, and one of the audience downloaded my novel then and there. If only more would do that ...

Linda O. Johnston said...

I enjoy my Kindle, Betty, but you sound a whole lot more techie about such things than I am! It is fun just to be able to order a book and there it is.

Betty Hechtman said...

Ellen, I had never thought about that. How neat that somebody bought your book so instantly.

Betty Hechtman said...

Linda, the concept of someone calling me a technie earns a definite LOL!

Monica Ferris said...

Ellen's is not the first experience of that. It happens at signings, too. Nothing quite as thrilling to an author giving a talk as to see someone in the audience downloading his or her book!

Dru said...

I love my e-reader and I'm glad to hear your experience is positive with the iPad mini.

I still read printed book, but mostly my e-reader.

Tracy Weber said...

I haven't been able to take to the e-books yet. There's something about the feel and smell of paper...