I’ve just had an epiphany of sorts. A lab colleague of mine wanted to read the most recent draft of my second novel, still in manuscript form, but quite fancied trying out a shiny Sony PRS-505 electronic reading device that her husband had recently brought back from the States. We thought it would be fun to import my manuscript onto her reader so she could critique the draft and trial the new toy simultaneously. So I took the thing home for the weekend to see what it could do.<\/p>\n
\nIn short, I’m now smitten. Not necessarily with the Sony, which isn’t quite perfect, but with the entire e-reader concept. Whenever I thought about e-books in the past, I envisioned an ugly backlit screen inducing eyestrain and headaches. To say nothing of the fact that relaxation, for me, is an escape<\/em> from the screens that already dominate so much of my waking life. Never mind the hype about Japanese schoolgirls reading novels on their mobile phones \u2013 could someone as traditional as I am actually curl up on the sofa with Bill Evans the cat and lose<\/em> myself in one of these things? <\/p>\n \nThe answer is yes: emphatically so. The technology, which I believe is called eInk and comes courtesy of Phillips, is amazing. The print is so paper-like that the page can only be read in the light \u2013 a complaint from some consumers but a distinct plus in my opinion, not being a big fan of reading in the dark. The text was also beautifully rendered, in all three handy sizes. After a few minutes perusing a sample e-Book, I found my right hand subconsciously floating towards the top right corner ready to turn the nonexistent page. To me this implies that my mind was completely fooled and thought it was a real book. Not being able to suspend disbelief would have been the death knell for this platform, but it was no problem at all.<\/p>\n \nFor me, another key factor is convenience. The Sony is slimmer than a paperback and probably no heavier. I’m one of these sorts of girls who lug around too many things in a handbag, so lately my literary choices have been based more on width than on authorship and reputation. If I can’t commute easily with a book these days, it doesn’t get read. And imagine going on a trip with only one paperback-sized item instead of ten. Run out of material in a country that has no easy access to books in your language? You’re only a dodgy internet caf\u00e9 away from topping up.<\/p>\n \nYou can download your own documents onto the Sony as well, just by converting Word to rtf. It took me about five minutes to get my novel onto my friend’s reader, and the formatting was perfectly preserved. When I eventually buy a reader of my own, I will try to use it for my scientific reading. It will be easy to convert manuscripts and grants in preparation and those I’m helping to peer review, whereas I assume I can take the full-text version of a published paper, paste into Word and convert to rtf. No figures, of course, but I’m the sort of person who likes to go through the entire text first before examining the figures anyway. I’m already guilty about how much paper I waste printing out the literature (and often get a sore shoulder from the weight of my bag), so the reader could be a great solution.<\/p>\n \nIf anyone out there has tried another type of reader, such as the Kindle, or has any reservations about the Sony, I’d be grateful to hear your feedback before I make the purchase. <\/p>\n \nIn the meantime, I always thought I’d mourn the loss of paper books, a transition bound to be inevitable. But suddenly, I’m not so sure it will be as heartbreaking as I’d imagined. How many years away, do you suppose, are we from that world?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve just had an epiphany of sorts. A lab colleague of mine wanted to read the most recent draft of my second novel, still in manuscript form, but quite fancied trying out a shiny Sony PRS-505 electronic reading device that … Continue reading