US Trip Essentials: An Ereader
I've been through wanting a backlit ereader. Backlit reading of text is already something I do 12 - 16 hours a day so I hardly think I'm going to develop eye-strain at the mere thought of a backlit ereader (as seems to be the suggestion by e-ink adherents). But the devices are often bigger than other ereaders, or less appealing for some reason, and often not dedicated ereaders which is what I want.
I borrowed a friend's Sony (e-ink) ereader for a trip away and found I was always struggling to read the thing. There never seemed to be enough contrast - and I'm used to reading standard books in some diabolically bad light (like outside under the orange street lights while I'm walking the cats). I always felt as if I had to have a room light on to read it in conditions where I'd have been fine with a standard book.
Then I discovered the Nook with Glowlight! One device, with light. Perfect! But B&N won't ship it outside the US and won't sell it or ebooks to people without a US credit card (with a US billing address). While planning to get Gary's cousin (in LA) to do the buying and forwarding to me I realised that this would work for the trip but once home in NZ I would forever be pestering somebody else to help me buy more books.
So, the Kindle. Not my first choice; not even second. With a cover and light. Again, not my first choice. Then I tried to add the books I'd put in my B&N wish list to my Amazon wish list and found some of them aren't available through Amazon. (One of those things that makes me grumpy about the whole ereader issue.) Anyway, I'm poised to buy the Kindle Touch plus olive green cover with light and enough books to get me started. As soon as I hear from my sister-in-law about her cover-and-light I'll be hitting the 'buy' button.
Should work for the trip and a year or so afterwards. That's good enough for now.
What's in the wish list?
Want to read but (probably) not keep*:
Jeanne Birdsall ~ The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
Carola Dunn ~ Damsel in Distress / Anthem for Doomed Youth / Gone West
Will Hobbs ~ Take Me to the River
Anthony Horowitz ~ Snakehead
Terry Pratchett ~ Wintersmith
Lawrence Watt-Evans ~ The Misenchanted Sword / With A Single Spell
Patricia C. Wrede ~ Daughter of Witches / Shadow Magic
Re-reads#:
J. R. R. Tolkien ~ The Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit
Ruth Wind ~ Jezebel's Blues
* This is my intended purpose for an ereader. Short term purpose is the US trip.
# Gotta have some favourites that I'd really like to find the time to re-read. Twelve hour flight ought to give me that. :o)
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I borrowed a friend's Sony (e-ink) ereader for a trip away and found I was always struggling to read the thing. There never seemed to be enough contrast - and I'm used to reading standard books in some diabolically bad light (like outside under the orange street lights while I'm walking the cats). I always felt as if I had to have a room light on to read it in conditions where I'd have been fine with a standard book.
Then I discovered the Nook with Glowlight! One device, with light. Perfect! But B&N won't ship it outside the US and won't sell it or ebooks to people without a US credit card (with a US billing address). While planning to get Gary's cousin (in LA) to do the buying and forwarding to me I realised that this would work for the trip but once home in NZ I would forever be pestering somebody else to help me buy more books.
So, the Kindle. Not my first choice; not even second. With a cover and light. Again, not my first choice. Then I tried to add the books I'd put in my B&N wish list to my Amazon wish list and found some of them aren't available through Amazon. (One of those things that makes me grumpy about the whole ereader issue.) Anyway, I'm poised to buy the Kindle Touch plus olive green cover with light and enough books to get me started. As soon as I hear from my sister-in-law about her cover-and-light I'll be hitting the 'buy' button.
Should work for the trip and a year or so afterwards. That's good enough for now.
What's in the wish list?
Want to read but (probably) not keep*:
Jeanne Birdsall ~ The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
Carola Dunn ~ Damsel in Distress / Anthem for Doomed Youth / Gone West
Will Hobbs ~ Take Me to the River
Anthony Horowitz ~ Snakehead
Terry Pratchett ~ Wintersmith
Lawrence Watt-Evans ~ The Misenchanted Sword / With A Single Spell
Patricia C. Wrede ~ Daughter of Witches / Shadow Magic
Re-reads#:
J. R. R. Tolkien ~ The Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit
Ruth Wind ~ Jezebel's Blues
* This is my intended purpose for an ereader. Short term purpose is the US trip.
# Gotta have some favourites that I'd really like to find the time to re-read. Twelve hour flight ought to give me that. :o)
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