The Jolly Gamesman and His Many Toys
The Sony Reader Pocket Edition
Watching the show ‘Hoarders’ on TLC has put some things into perspective for me. While not as terrible as some of the folks on the show, I have a lot of clutter. Comics, classic video games, movies and books line the walls, boxes and floors of my room.
In an early effort to decrease the junk, some time ago I consolidated my DVD collection to a set of hard drives attached to my computer. I recently set my sights on my book collection. It is riddled with titles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Wars, Stephen King, Chuck Palahniuk etc., all of which I have read once and never touched again. Why do I keep these after I read them? They take up so much space, and have very little resell value. Looking at these glorified dust holders, I had to ask myself “Do I like books, or do I like reading?”
It was then I decided to do away with the physical and get an e-reader. The market for devices that can read e-books is still in it’s infancy.The most well known right now is the Amazon Kindle, which at the time of my purchase was not available in Canada. There is also the recently launched Barnes & Noble nook, and some iPhone e-book apps, but I finally decided upon the Sony Reader Pocket Edition.
An impulse buyer at heart, I didn’t do any research once I got the idea in my head to purchase one of these. Staples was sold out, so off to London Drugs I went. According to the display case in front of me, I had the color options of B/S/R. Blue, Silver & Red I figured. Dangling above these three devices, there was the leather case and LED Light add on, which I picked up also, as e-ink technology that drives these devices is not backlit.
After purchasing the R for Red version, I gathered my goods and headed off to dinner. While waiting for my date, I decided to open up the Reader and give it a go. Turns out ‘R’ stands for Rose, not Red.
First thing I did after getting home with my pink gadget was load it to the brim with a ton of downloaded titles. But, I ultimately found this to be a disservice to the book I was reading, as there were so many choices I found myself jumping around from title to title. I decided then and there to only ever have one book at a time on it to avoid distraction and temptation.
On the geekery side, It boasts a 5″ e-ink display that can show the content you are reading in three different sizes. Inside there is 512 mb of memory that can store about 350 books, and a battery that claims to last up to two weeks on a single charge. Since it uses industry wide standard formats, you can throw almost anything its way and it will display it. However, sometimes there are some formatting issues. The one I most commonly see is an “o” being replaced with a “0″.
All in all, I love this gadget. I find myself reading more than I have ever before. It can be a bit of a tough sell to long time book readers though. Both my Mom and girlfriend scoffed at the idea. And, while reading in the break room at work, a a co-worker walking by snickered and commented, “Have fun with your one function device.” I asked him to wait a minute. “Have you ever heard of the Car-Boat?” I asked. “Yes, I have,” he continued smugly, “It’s a car on the road, and once in water, it’s a boat.” I blink and ask “What did you drive to work today?” “My ca-” he stopped, and walked away.
~The Fine Print~
Available in Navy Blue, Silver & Rose
Priced at $199.99 US at publish date
