As of around 12 midday today I own a Sony pocket e-reader. And, to be honest, I'm glad.
Although I do prefer proper books, I found myself spending a hell of a lot of the things, even on ones I could have downloaded for free.
After some research today looking for some Shakespeare for my course I came across the Adelaide University website which offers absolutely hundreds of free ebooks which has since lost their copyright and are therefore legally obtainable for free.
In the past hour I've downloaded over 200 books which, if put into cash could end up costing almost £400 - the price of 2 Sony e-readers. I now have a massive collection and I'm only on 'B'.
This e-reader was definitely a great purchase and although comfortable to read with and easy on the eyes (it uses the e-ink technology) I can't say it'll replace real books which I'll still be buying.
What I purchased for convenience to prevent having to carry around large amounts of books has since become an excellent purchase.
So, what is this e-reader like?
Well, as previously mentioned, it uses the recent e-ink technology which gives the feeling that I'm reading a real book. Reason for this is that the light doesn't distort or block out the text which means, excluding the brushed metal casing, a comfortable read.
It also has a large memory. As mentioned above, I have over 200 books stored on it already which has used up just 90mb approx of 1.5gb memory (one book is around 20kb in size). This obviously means I'll be able to carry around possibly 1000s of books at a time - a lot more than my uni bag or bookshelf will hold.
Book transfer works just like an iPod would - plug in the reader, install the reader library and drag and drop. You can even drag the books into a library ready for the next time you plug in the reader (although, rather than auto-update, you need to select the books from the library and drag them over to the reader - takes 2 seconds to do, though).
It's also an incredibly light piece of kit so it feel like you're holding less than a book when reading. Battery (apparently) lasts for 10,000 page turns, so if you fancy reading Ulysses 10 times, you don't even need to charge the thing once.
Sadly it doesn't come with a case or cover so they need to be purchased seperately but it does come boxed and wrapped in one of those foam bags which does a decent protective job.
Obviously this'll never feel or smell like a new or old book but it was a worthwhile purchase and maybe one which I should have done a long time ago. Oh, and it was also free on the UEL Progress Bursary :D
Now that I'm spoilt for books reviews should become frequent again.
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