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My First E-Reader
Jun. 5th, 2010 07:10 pmBefore Wiscon, I purchased a Sony E-Reader Pocket Edition from woot.com. It was a good deal (I'd have to look up how much, and my connection is not at its best at the moment), even though it was refurbished.
I was hoping it would come before I left for Wiscon, but not expecting it. I did expect it to be here waiting when I got back. But it wasn't! I finally got it on Thursday, after it had traveled the country on the back of a snail with a Fedex logo on its shell.
They were sold out of black when I finally went for it, and silver is boring, so I got 'red' which is really 'rose', which is really more of a nice pinky-purply color and not as feminine as it sounds. I seem to be acquiring red electronics... (my ds is red and my portable hd).
I plugged it into my computer to charge and took a nap. A long nap, as it was fully charged and ready and waiting for me when I woke up. From the literature that came with it, it wasn't entirely clear to me if I had to install the Sony software or not if I wasn't intending to 'purchase' any books. But, in the end, I did install it.
I accidentally 'ejected' my reader just shortly after I got the software going, which caused me some confusion. I had clicked an icon half-expecting it to expand the 'folder' (and the other half expecting it to at least give me a clue what the icon was 'do you really want to X?'). I had to actually read the help to figure out the icon was the eject button. And so I closed the program, unplugged and replugged in the reader. And it was back.
I downloaded 3 of Cory Doctorow's books and an epub version of Peter Pan I found with a Google seasrch. (See? I said I wasn't going to purchase books! I didn't say I was going to acquire them illegally!)
It wasn't too hard to get them on the reader. And then, voila, there they were! I stayed up too late that night picking up For the Win where I had left off (from my hardcover print copy). It was the combination of reading, and using a electronic device, nice and comfortable-like while in bed, that just kept me reading and reading. Hey, it's a step up from playing Picross 3D or random Facebook games!
Unfortunately, this is when I hit my first disappointment. The book had typos. Then.. the book had errors. Was the epub created from a proof version of the manuscript? Because I can't blame the person who turned it into epub for the errors I found. You'd think the digital versions would be more up to date and more correct. As fans read and say 'Look, Cory, this is wrong.' But.. no.
I can't easily compare it to my print version, as the page numbers don't match up. But I do see that one of the main character's names, which switches from Goldberg to Rosenbaum and back in the epub, seems to have been corrected to just Goldberg in the print. Hopefully his age is consistent there as well, because that was repeatedly bugging me. First he'd be nearly 17, then he'd be 17, then 18, then nearly 18, then back to 17. Driving me mad!
I still haven't finished the book. Now I'm not sure if I should finish in the print version or the e-version. Just how different are they?
My next thing I did was (after clearing the block on my library account from a lost book I'm sure I returned and which will probably show up in the next week now that I've paid for it) browse the library collection of e-books from Overdrive. There aren't a whole lot, and we're sharing with everyone in the state. And, annoyingly, the sf/f is all in with the 'adult fiction', so I had to browse 400+ titles. I placed holds for 4 books, and one came up just last night. So that was quick.
Overdrive gave me a download button, which returned gibberish when clicked on it. It also told me to download Adobe Digital Editions. So I clicked through, and clicked through, and clicked, and then a little flash popped up that said 'connecting'. And did not move from there.
Restart the whole thing from Firefox, beginning on the library's website. Click, click, click, click, click, type in barcode, click, click, click, click, click... there may have been one or two more clicks in there (not fewer!).. and approve the flash. Nada. I had gotten further in Opera.
Tell flash blocker to allow all flash from adobe.com, reload, reload again for good measure. Et, voila. Now it downloads. And installs. La la la. Okay, you need an Adobe ID. So go get one.
Click on it, and it opens Opera (my default browser) which sits there and sits there. Stop, refresh. Nope. Won't load.
Go to adobe's homepage, click my account, create an account that way.
Yay! Finish the install. It tells me it found a book or something that it's now going to associate with my adobe ID. No idea what that was, since it wasn't the book from Overdrive (which I didn't have yet) and my other epubs should've been drm free. But.. anyhow..
Now download it from Overdrive. And get it onto my reader. Yay!
And it's going to mysteriously self-destruct in 14 days. Boo!
The book I grabbed this way was This Book is Overdue a nonfiction book about libraries and stuff. Maybe that's like.. apropos or ironic or something. But I mention the title because the formatting is crap!! The margins are insane. So on longish paragraphs, I just get this skinny straight block of text with no break for my eyes. Grr. For all the errors in For the Win at least it was pretty to read! (And Cory had inserted adverts for various bookstores, and mentioned our trip to Mysterious Galaxy for the Harry Potter 7th book release. Squee.)
So I hope all the Overdrive books aren't formatted like this. Or I won't bother. Hold queue, fourteen days to read it, _and_ horrible margins? No thanks. There's plenty of other free content out there.
And I aim to find it.
Oh! The reader itself! Yes, I quite like it. It's easy to hold and curl up in bed with. It's a bit annoying you have to have the light on, but well, you would with a book anyway, wouldn't you? I like the size and the placement of the page flip button. The battery still shows all its bars, even though I've been reading like mad for 3 days now. My only wish is that it was _slightly_ lighter. Perhaps made of hard plastic instead of metal. Or maybe I just want a bit of padding in key areas.
It came with a sleeve, but I think I might want to buy a case for it. I'll take suggestions.
I would recommend the device to other people without hesitation.
I was hoping it would come before I left for Wiscon, but not expecting it. I did expect it to be here waiting when I got back. But it wasn't! I finally got it on Thursday, after it had traveled the country on the back of a snail with a Fedex logo on its shell.
They were sold out of black when I finally went for it, and silver is boring, so I got 'red' which is really 'rose', which is really more of a nice pinky-purply color and not as feminine as it sounds. I seem to be acquiring red electronics... (my ds is red and my portable hd).
I plugged it into my computer to charge and took a nap. A long nap, as it was fully charged and ready and waiting for me when I woke up. From the literature that came with it, it wasn't entirely clear to me if I had to install the Sony software or not if I wasn't intending to 'purchase' any books. But, in the end, I did install it.
I accidentally 'ejected' my reader just shortly after I got the software going, which caused me some confusion. I had clicked an icon half-expecting it to expand the 'folder' (and the other half expecting it to at least give me a clue what the icon was 'do you really want to X?'). I had to actually read the help to figure out the icon was the eject button. And so I closed the program, unplugged and replugged in the reader. And it was back.
I downloaded 3 of Cory Doctorow's books and an epub version of Peter Pan I found with a Google seasrch. (See? I said I wasn't going to purchase books! I didn't say I was going to acquire them illegally!)
It wasn't too hard to get them on the reader. And then, voila, there they were! I stayed up too late that night picking up For the Win where I had left off (from my hardcover print copy). It was the combination of reading, and using a electronic device, nice and comfortable-like while in bed, that just kept me reading and reading. Hey, it's a step up from playing Picross 3D or random Facebook games!
Unfortunately, this is when I hit my first disappointment. The book had typos. Then.. the book had errors. Was the epub created from a proof version of the manuscript? Because I can't blame the person who turned it into epub for the errors I found. You'd think the digital versions would be more up to date and more correct. As fans read and say 'Look, Cory, this is wrong.' But.. no.
I can't easily compare it to my print version, as the page numbers don't match up. But I do see that one of the main character's names, which switches from Goldberg to Rosenbaum and back in the epub, seems to have been corrected to just Goldberg in the print. Hopefully his age is consistent there as well, because that was repeatedly bugging me. First he'd be nearly 17, then he'd be 17, then 18, then nearly 18, then back to 17. Driving me mad!
I still haven't finished the book. Now I'm not sure if I should finish in the print version or the e-version. Just how different are they?
My next thing I did was (after clearing the block on my library account from a lost book I'm sure I returned and which will probably show up in the next week now that I've paid for it) browse the library collection of e-books from Overdrive. There aren't a whole lot, and we're sharing with everyone in the state. And, annoyingly, the sf/f is all in with the 'adult fiction', so I had to browse 400+ titles. I placed holds for 4 books, and one came up just last night. So that was quick.
Overdrive gave me a download button, which returned gibberish when clicked on it. It also told me to download Adobe Digital Editions. So I clicked through, and clicked through, and clicked, and then a little flash popped up that said 'connecting'. And did not move from there.
Restart the whole thing from Firefox, beginning on the library's website. Click, click, click, click, click, type in barcode, click, click, click, click, click... there may have been one or two more clicks in there (not fewer!).. and approve the flash. Nada. I had gotten further in Opera.
Tell flash blocker to allow all flash from adobe.com, reload, reload again for good measure. Et, voila. Now it downloads. And installs. La la la. Okay, you need an Adobe ID. So go get one.
Click on it, and it opens Opera (my default browser) which sits there and sits there. Stop, refresh. Nope. Won't load.
Go to adobe's homepage, click my account, create an account that way.
Yay! Finish the install. It tells me it found a book or something that it's now going to associate with my adobe ID. No idea what that was, since it wasn't the book from Overdrive (which I didn't have yet) and my other epubs should've been drm free. But.. anyhow..
Now download it from Overdrive. And get it onto my reader. Yay!
And it's going to mysteriously self-destruct in 14 days. Boo!
The book I grabbed this way was This Book is Overdue a nonfiction book about libraries and stuff. Maybe that's like.. apropos or ironic or something. But I mention the title because the formatting is crap!! The margins are insane. So on longish paragraphs, I just get this skinny straight block of text with no break for my eyes. Grr. For all the errors in For the Win at least it was pretty to read! (And Cory had inserted adverts for various bookstores, and mentioned our trip to Mysterious Galaxy for the Harry Potter 7th book release. Squee.)
So I hope all the Overdrive books aren't formatted like this. Or I won't bother. Hold queue, fourteen days to read it, _and_ horrible margins? No thanks. There's plenty of other free content out there.
And I aim to find it.
Oh! The reader itself! Yes, I quite like it. It's easy to hold and curl up in bed with. It's a bit annoying you have to have the light on, but well, you would with a book anyway, wouldn't you? I like the size and the placement of the page flip button. The battery still shows all its bars, even though I've been reading like mad for 3 days now. My only wish is that it was _slightly_ lighter. Perhaps made of hard plastic instead of metal. Or maybe I just want a bit of padding in key areas.
It came with a sleeve, but I think I might want to buy a case for it. I'll take suggestions.
I would recommend the device to other people without hesitation.
