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Tanzaku · 05-24-2009, 01:58 PM

I, too, am thinking about a netbook for an ebook reader, primarily for two reasons: I find my Sony Reader (505) is too dark in too many places; my favorite pastime is reading while simultaneously listening to the audio book. (Yay for Audible!). My Sony Reader can't do audio bookmarks so I end up carrying a separate MP3 player. The Sony light wedge is heavy, gives uneven illumination, and I don't like looking through it to the screen.

Looking for alternatives, I found netbooks and the Mobipocket Reader software. Playing around with the Mobi Reader on my PC, seems great. I did change the background to a light grey and that helped reduce the contrast and ease eye strain. Forcing it to the same screen size as a netbook (1024x600, or 1366x768 -- I'm considering the Dell 10 with this higher screen resolution) and then changing the display to two columns gives me a very "facing page" sort of look which seems quite comfortable for reading in spite of its horizontal format. I love the font, spacing, margins adjustments in the Mobipocket Reader. In fact, I can't seem to find anything about it I don't like. It seems to offer everything I wish my Sony Reader had in terms of software.

So, for those of you who are down on netbooks as readers and prefer your dedicated reader, why? Could you be more specific? Before I buy a netbook, I'd like to learn from your experiences using your netbook as a reader or audio book listening device. At this point all I have is a lot of untested theories and I'd like to hear from some experienced users.

05-24-2009, 01:58 PM	#82
Tanzaku Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 225 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Anacortes, WA Device: Kindle Fire, Kindle 3	I, too, am thinking about a netbook for an ebook reader, primarily for two reasons: I find my Sony Reader (505) is too dark in too many places; my favorite pastime is reading while simultaneously listening to the audio book. (Yay for Audible!). My Sony Reader can't do audio bookmarks so I end up carrying a separate MP3 player. The Sony light wedge is heavy, gives uneven illumination, and I don't like looking through it to the screen. Looking for alternatives, I found netbooks and the Mobipocket Reader software. Playing around with the Mobi Reader on my PC, seems great. I did change the background to a light grey and that helped reduce the contrast and ease eye strain. Forcing it to the same screen size as a netbook (1024x600, or 1366x768 -- I'm considering the Dell 10 with this higher screen resolution) and then changing the display to two columns gives me a very "facing page" sort of look which seems quite comfortable for reading in spite of its horizontal format. I love the font, spacing, margins adjustments in the Mobipocket Reader. In fact, I can't seem to find anything about it I don't like. It seems to offer everything I wish my Sony Reader had in terms of software. So, for those of you who are down on netbooks as readers and prefer your dedicated reader, why? Could you be more specific? Before I buy a netbook, I'd like to learn from your experiences using your netbook as a reader or audio book listening device. At this point all I have is a lot of untested theories and I'd like to hear from some experienced users.