How has your reader changed your life?

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by Pookeysgirl

It has definitely changed my life. I always have something to read without having to driver through snow or rain to a bookstore. I don't have to worry about space to keep all my books. I also find that I'm reading a lot more now and I'm really enjoying reading books by authors I never would have heard of if it wasn't for this forum

Yeah, that !

My bag is lighter, too.
I wish I had the e-reader when i went to Denmark for 7 months. And couldn't carry all my books.

[Anthem]

I now spend long hours in front of my computer screen trying to decide if this or that book (priced the same!) would be more fun on paper or on e-ink and whether there is any possibility that I will meet the author in person and want it signed and whether it would be more fun to display it on a digital shelf or on my real shelves etcetera, etcetera.

I now curse more as well. Nothing like waking up, getting cozy on the couch with a beverage and powering up the e-reader to find out you have what is probably less than 25% percent of a battery (god bless 'em) left and you need to go plug it in to your computer (which isn't already on!) for two-three hours. Much cursing ensues, believe me.

"Apparently I didn't want to read this morning and would rather (much!) do housework for the next three hours as I wait!"

[Maggie May]

Before I got my Cybook I used to buy all my paperback books through Amazon UK.
It cost me an absolute fortune in P&P. With my eReader I have managed to save myself quite a bit of money. Money I can now spend on eBooks instead. They are much cheaper. My purchases were paperback mostly. I have a few favourite authors, and I would always buy their Hardback than wait for their paperback version to come out.

Mag.

[eddiek]

My Nook saves me a ton of money, lets me have a library without actually having a library in my house, and lets me easily share books with my girlfriend

[Sydney's Mom]

I save gas because I no longer pick up books at the library. I no longer crawl on the floor to see the books I have double-stacked on the bottom shelf of the bookcase - I just browse Calibre to find my next book. I can read while I am doing my charity knitting (I used to not read from January to October). If I finish a book while I am on the train or an airplane, I have approximately 300 more books to choose from. I can jack up the font while I am reading in bed, and turn down the light. Once again, I can read until I fall asleep, and don't have to worry about the noise of pages turning waking up my husband.

Most importantly, I always have a book with me. I purposely buy bigger purses (I'm only 5'2") just to hold my kindle. The first time I went to pick up my daughter at school and was sitting in the car lane and remembered I had something to read, the kindle paid for itself in my opinion.

[unboggling]

My life has changed significantly over the two months since I bought my first dedicated eBook reader.

1. I spend much less time reading fiction and much more time reading forum posts here (having never frequented forums before), reading software and hardware reviews pertaining to eBooks (didn't care about them before); configuring eBook readers and other applications such as calibre; and learning scripting languages that have changed a lot since I last scripted a decade ago.

2. As a retired, divorced, childless social hermit I found it necessary to reengage with the human race in an effort to learn how to do some of the things mentioned in #1. This entailed having to relearn some communication skills and work on limiting previously habitual displays of crotchety old cussing and mumbling that didn't matter when I had no audience.

3. As a result of #2 I felt more inclined to initiate actual contact with real live un-virtual and un-fictional humans. I called one of my brothers who I hadn't talked to in years and somehow we jump-started that estranged relationship into something better. I've been calling my family-of-origin siblings regularly when previously we didn't speak unless they called me first. I'm even planning to call my x-wife who I haven't spoken with in 20 years, as soon as I gird up some courage, just to catch up on how she's doing. "Catching up" with humans who are no longer in my home or close environment is something I never cared about before.

4. I stopped going on buying sprees of physical treebooks at local bookstores and at Amazon. At first I bought a few eBooks and downloaded a lot of free eBooks, then put eBook acquisition on hold while I figured out how I want to build an eBook library and phase out my pBook library.

5. The eBooks I've downloaded include many authors and even some genres I didn't previously collect, because for some strange reason the eBook experience gives me permission (unconsciously) for a greater freedom of choice, probably as a consequence of breaking the pBook habits or ruts that I'd acquired over 40+ years.

6. Generally my mood has brightened, my cynicism has lessened, my optimism has increased, my isolation has lessened, my engagement in my own life has increased.

Before I retired I was in the computer field. My first career before that was as a social worker and human counselor for 10 years, believe it or not, lol. Human behavior used to intrigue me until I burned out and decided computers were easier to deal with. Lately human behavior has begun to catch my attention again.

Thank you, sunlioness, for starting an interesting thread and giving me occasion to do a self-status-check.

[sunlioness]

Originally Posted by BenBanned

I was allways an avid reader but for the past few years I was slacking off, going months without reading anything substantial. As soon as I got my reader I got right back on pace with my reading.

Same thing for me. As soon as I graduated and started working (like a year ago) I noticed that I had stopped reading books as often and as enthusiastically as before. That has totally changed now.

Originally Posted by cfrizz

I stopped buying books years ago for 1. expense, and 2. no more room in bookcase, & 3. the small fonts made it uncomfortable.

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

Something that I've noticed in the last year (and yes, I turned 50 this year) is that I've started using the larger font sizes. I can't imagine how frustrated I'd be if I wasn't able to do that.

The main reason why I want to buy a reader to my mother. But I will wait first for more Greek ebook to be published as the variety now is seriously small.

Originally Posted by KenJackson

I also love and enjoy my Sony Reader.

But one negative thing is that it has made me more aware of how slow of a reader I am. It never used to be a problem because I only went out and bought a novel once in a while to treat myself.

Have you tried the Spreeder? I read quite fast so I haven't thoroughly used it but it has helped my sister a lot. It's very easy and painless to do and depending on the text you use, it might even be interesting.

Originally Posted by Anthem

I now curse more as well. Nothing like waking up, getting cozy on the couch with a beverage and powering up the e-reader to find out you have what is probably less than 25% percent of a battery (god bless 'em) left and you need to go plug it in to your computer (which isn't already on!) for two-three hours. Much cursing ensues, believe me!

How about buying a wall charger that you can use while reading? I bought something like this for a pound and it has saved me.

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

Most importantly, I always have a book with me. I purposely buy bigger purses (I'm only 5'2") just to hold my kindle. The first time I went to pick up my daughter at school and was sitting in the car lane and remembered I had something to read, the kindle paid for itself in my opinion.

I know what you mean. I don't get easily bored but those odd minutes while waiting for the train on the platform or the bus at the station, always seemed to last forever.

Originally Posted by Maggie May

Before I got my Cybook I used to buy all my paperback books through Amazon UK.
It cost me an absolute fortune in P&P.

I had never thought of the P&P charges until last November when I cancelled my Premium subscription with Amazon due to the WikiLeaks scandal. Then I realised that the P&P charges are even more scandalous than the WikiLeaks affair, sometimes amounting to 40% of the book price!

Originally Posted by unboggling

My life has changed significantly over the two months since I bought my first dedicated eBook reader [..]

Lately human behavior has begun to catch my attention again.

Amazingly beautiful and touching post, thank you so much for sharing your story with us!

[gollu]

I for one feel the negative effect of the ebook world. Never before I got my reader was I able to get all the books I'd like and read at a non-stop pace. Either I'd buy second hand books, or borrow from friends or in the very rare occasions buy new books. As my tastes are not the most ordinary, books were hard to come by and then I'd "eat" them in a few days.

But now... there seem to be hundreds of books I'd possibly enjoy. I finish a book and there's a sequel to follow. I finish a series and a new one, thousands of new pages, is easily available.

So I finish the "must" tasks of the day, I go for a rest, read a few pages and I find myself reading in 3 AM. The next day I go for a boring lecture and what do I bring in my bag - that's right, the Kindle thingy. The lecturer starts repeating himself, I take out the Kindle and 10 minutes later I have no idea what the lesson is about.
It's like drugs, but there's no medication

[JoelArnold]

For me it's simple - since getting an ereader, I've been reading a lot more. And that's a good thing.

[exscentric]

I've never read for enjoyment, only as a have to for school etc. I think this is due to a dislike for reading. Couple years ago I took a dyslexic test and I rated about as high as possible so suspect this has been my problem all along.

It dawned on me that I read avidly online in forums, etc. Hummm, decided to try an ereader for pleasure and bingo, I've been reading a bundle since for pleasure, first in 50 years.

At first I used a tablet but tried a kindle 3 and the contrast is similar to the tablet - so I read a book a week as opposed to one half a century :-)

Quite a change actually :-)

[s1mp13m4n]

My Ereader has changed my life by allowing me to read. Let me explain this. I am legally blind in both eyes and was born this way. With my Kindle 3 I can now adjust font size with any book I am reading. I no longer has words jumping all over the page due to glare or too small or print or too strong of magnification. I am now reading 1-2 books a week which I have never been able to do before the Kindle. The E-ink screen works well for me where as the LCD screen on the Jetbook Lite did not. The device has changed my life by allowing me to enjoy reading on a daily basis.

[Richey79]

Yes. I find that I read far more on any ereader than I have done for a long time. I think it's because it's so easy to just pick one up where you left off for five minutes: if that were a book, somehow I would end up rereading the same paragraph five times, losing my bookmark, not being able to get comfortable etc.

There's a part of me that feels a bit sad that I find impediments to use in something as accessible and portable as a paperback. In public, I feel more comfortable with an ereading device, too: people might think I'm playing Angry Birds or checking Facebook, both of which are activities far more socially acceptable than reading these days.

[mikegetz]

I'm not sure that the eReader has really impacted me that much, yet. But it will.

for the last 2 1/2 years, i have been reading quite a bit again. When i was still living at home, there were always books. Mom is a paperback junkie, with a minor in audiobooks. Strange circumstances involving my autistic nephew, custody battles, and a return to college at age 29 found me living at home again late in life. Reading was pretty much an obsession around there.

So, after 30 months of school, and a couple of years of crap job outside of my field, i find myself partnered with another avid reader, and a child of my own on the way. Book money does not exist any more. I stumble upon a really good gig in my chosen field, and discover a fringe benefit that i never knew about before - free old technology to play with. One of these nuggets of electronic joy was a older, decommissioned IBM tablet PC. And i discovered that Microsoft has a program that displays ebooks!

Now anyone familiar with pre-Lenovo IBM tablets knows that these things are heavy, hot, and you just plain can't read them in bright light. 3 hours of battery life in power save mode, and screen dimmed with wifi off. But i had over 4000 books amassed in a 5 pound package. I sort of blew off the Kindle when it came out due to this.
My tablet surfed the web, with the little USB dongle became a 12" GPS device, and could double as a space heater. It was cool for vacations, as i no longer needed to drag around my 10 lb. laptop to keep in touch, but i was still tethered to the AC outlet.

So a couple of months ago, my mother in law got herself a Kindle3. One of the first books she downloaded was the second installment of a series my wife turned her onto. Naturally, MiL lends wife Kindle to read said book.

Next thing i know, i'm at WalMart buying my wife a Kobo, and converting my 8000+ book library from .lit to ePub. By the way, bulk conversions that large are not something that you initiate lightly, or if you plan to use the computer that day ... lol.

And my now unused backup laptop that was collecting dust, thanks to the wonder that is CraigsList, was traded for a Pandigital 6" (the eInk model) so that i can read again too. So, it's not quite as snappy as a Kobo Wifi or the Kindle. But its battery life is way better than my old tablet - which hasn't been powered on in over 3 weeks. I may keep it to have a lightweight laptop to take on vacation, i may ditch it. I don't know yet.


But I'll be damn sure my reader is fully loaded before i go.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

I save gas because I no longer pick up books at the library. I no longer crawl on the floor to see the books I have double-stacked on the bottom shelf of the bookcase - I just browse Calibre to find my next book. I can read while I am doing my charity knitting (I used to not read from January to October). If I finish a book while I am on the train or an airplane, I have approximately 300 more books to choose from. I can jack up the font while I am reading in bed, and turn down the light. Once again, I can read until I fall asleep, and don't have to worry about the noise of pages turning waking up my husband.

Most importantly, I always have a book with me. I purposely buy bigger purses (I'm only 5'2") just to hold my kindle. The first time I went to pick up my daughter at school and was sitting in the car lane and remembered I had something to read, the kindle paid for itself in my opinion.

I save on gas, too, as I have no libraries or bookstores within walking distance from my house, and I have to pay shipping when ordering books from Amazon, as well as suffer a 15 day wait for the books to arrive.

I get to buy smaller purses, now. I used to have to wear huge purses, to hold my paper books. My Sony PRS-505 is tiny compared to the books I used to carry - having it is doing a lot for my posture!