One of My Brighter Ideas

Yes, that is the Sony Reader Pocket Edition that you are currently feasting your eyes on. This marvel of technology weighs 7.76 oz, holds up to 350 books at any given time, and is currently in my hot, little hands. Oh yes, I took the eReader plunge about a month and a half ago and haven't looked back. 

As an avid reader (understatement) I have acquired quite a few books over the years (also an understatement). Since I left home at the wise old age of 17 to go to college, I have probably moved an average of once every 1.5 years. That means that every year and a half, my lazy ass has to box metric ass tons of books and haul them to my new abode. For some of you this means packing up your 8 deep stack of Maxims into your laptop bag and chucking the laptop bag into the Uhaul without a care in the world. For me this means at least 4-5 boxes, LARGE boxes, devoted to the transportation of what turned out to be around 200ish books. This pretty much blew and I wised up when I was moving back to LA from San Francisco. I had the brilliant idea to SHIP my books back to my Mom in Oregon. Quite a few dollars later and some agonizing trips to the UPS store, I was a lot lighter but missing some of my favorite titles. What was a girl to do? Surely, she couldn't have it all. She couldn't have the American dream: all her books in one place with none of the heavy lifting (I'm sure that's your idea of the American dream, too. Stop laughing).

Then my fabulous friend, Mango (ValleyAdjacent), showed up one day with a Sony Reader (full sized). She's a ridiculous reader as well. This girl had to invest in some high quality bookcases just so she could support the weight of all her reading goodness. She gushed about her Sony Reader and how portable/light/easy it was. How she could keep a good chunk of her library in digital form and how she could actually check out books from public libraries online using tools like Overdrive and Shelfari. I was skeptical at first, thinking that this square thing could never take the place of a real book. There's no awesome book smell, no bending the spine back and really wearing it in. That couldn't really be great for the reading experience, could it? Well, I was totally right about the lack of awesome book smell and the inability to really wear a book in, but I was wrong about those things actually mattering. 

I love Woot. I'm pretty much addicted to discovering the deal of the day or possibly having a chance to grab that Random Bag 'O' Crap. It must have been fate because Woot had a Sony Reader Pocket Edition (refurb) on the site for $110. How could I say no? So I purchased it and waited like a little kid on Christmas Eve until that sucker arrived. I could not be happier with my purchase. Not only is the text on the Reader easy on the eyes, it's also a very intuitive gadget. Very easy for non-techie users to get used to. While the Sony software that comes with is a little clunky, you can easily bypass using it and acquire books more easily on other sites and through public libraries. The only downside I really encountered with the Reader is the fact that PDF books don't format correctly on it. Stick with ePub if you can. Oh, and get a library card to your local library! You'll need it to be able to "check out" electronic books on the websites.

I used to read an average of 2 books a month. I could have read more but honestly I was too lazy to to myself down to Barnes & Noble or Borders to grab a book and even then I always thought about where I am going to store it after I am done or what organization would I eventually end up donating it to. Now it looks like I'll be averaging around 5 to 6 books a month. So easy to navigate to the site of my choice and just download a book I want. 

If you're someone who goes through books like water, get this thing. It'll save you time and money (FREE LIBRARY BOOKS, PEOPLE!). Here are some great sites that will help you get started on your eBook journey (thanks, Mango):

Overdrive 
Shelfari 
MobileRead
KoboBooks