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mikegetz · 01-26-2011, 07:00 AM

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.

01-26-2011, 07:00 AM	#28
mikegetz Professional Nerd Posts: 84 Karma: 280 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Middletown, OH Device: Nook WiFI, KOBO, Pandigital Novel Personal	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.