I posted once under the thread title "The Ultimate Sin" whereas I confess to the crime of trying out a new Ereader over the tried and true Simple Touch that kept me sane through my deployment in Afghanistan. And then the argument was not whether what I did was wrong, but whether the Readers we use and love are female or male, and what sort of relationship we have with them as they tell us stories. Some people called us crazy-hell maybe I'm crazy, but it was all the library's fault. All those books, all those stories just waiting to be read. Who would have thought you could carry a library around in your pocket? For a bookworm it's like winning the lottery. You gotta love technology.
Anyway, don't get me wrong, the Nook is a decent Ereader to be sure, but I wanted more, or maybe I wanted less. The Simple Touch, or rather the Nook brand in general over-hyphenates everything, and you can't have your book cover as your screensaver unless you make a seperate screensaver with just that cover within it. Also the shelf management system is brutal, and if you have to do a reset, and you shelved books from the SD card then you might as well start weeping now. I know these reasons seem petty for not being entirely satisfied with the Nook, but I just can't help it.
When I got back in country I went out and bought the new E-Ink reader from Sony I thought I had found the perfect Ereader. I was sorely disappointed. But that was a couple of months ago. I rebought the Simple Touch, sold the Sony, and moved on with life.
Now I've done it again. I've played with Kindle Keyboard, Sony, and Nook, but I thought I'd give the Kobo Touch a try. I bought the Special Offers before I realized it, and when the first commercial screensaver assaulted me I feared I had erred. But I returned it, bought the one without the commercials, and now feel that I might at last have found E-Reader perfection.
First off, the custom font thing is pretty cool, and that alone really sealed the deal for me. I put a font called Hobbiton on it-had a geek moment. While the Reader is not quite as fast or as responsive as the Simple Touch it's still works magic in my opinion. But trying to load 2500 books on it at once causes it to scream, then freeze, and then scream some more. I've had to feed it small chunks of my library to keep it from panicking.
The way it sorts books by Author is the same as for the Simple Touch. No Calibre renaming here, and it doesn't have the Shelf Feature. As much as I want an awesome shelf-management system I found that without it I don't miss it, nor am I tempted to be less than happy with the Kobo. Also the screensaver is the book you're reading. Sony does this, too, but has a shelf-feature that tempts me something horrible. Now I can't seem to find a custom screensaver option on the Kobo, and that doesn't bother me, either. The Kobo looks to duplicate the book experience more closely than any reader I've used so far. Nook and Kindle have slightly better screens, but you can hardly notice it.
My wife claims I have OCD when it comes to books, and organizing them, and gathering them, but I like to think of it as a proper appreciation of books. She also says I'm addicted to all things electronic, but I don't have a problem unless I admit it to myself. AND THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN!
So at the end of this confession I have this to ask. I've been trying to convert someone away from the dead trees, and to the E-Ink. If I give that person the Simple Touch, but not sell it, and said person is converted does that balance my karma for setting the Nook aside? Does the Nook forgive me, or does a solar flare wipe out all readers across the planet, thus returning all of us to the dead trees anyway?
PS: If you've read this far thanks for your patience. My mind wanders sometimes when I'm writing, or reading. Mostly reading!
