I’ve got a large collection of e-books, but I’ve always just read them on my phone. Finally broke down and bought a proper e-reader with the nice e-ink display. Why didn’t I do this forever ago?
It’s got a backlight, but using it under a lamp with reflected light is just so much easier on my eyes and feels more like a paper book. I also haven’t read a book written on dead trees in a good minute, so sitting under a lamp just brings back a missing piece of the experience I didn’t even know was gone.
I also just can’t get over how “fake” the display looks. Fake is usually not used to describe something positively, but in this case, it’s a huge praise. The text and book cover images just look like they’re printed on a sheet of paper and slipped inside to make the device look functional…like a movie prop. Turning the backlight on diminishes this effect somewhat, though (which is another reason I prefer to leave it off).
I also love that I can just set it down and not worry about coming back to a dead battery, lol. The reader app on my phone is set to prevent it from going to sleep or turning off the screen, so sometimes I’ll set it down to go take care of something else, forget, and come back to a nearly dead battery.
To everyone who has recommended these gizmos to me, I finally get it. I know I said reading books on my phone was good enough, but I was wrong.
E-book readers are great. I prefer to read physical books, but for some of the older books that are difficult to find locally, I just get the ebook.
Still have a 15 old Sony Pocket reader, without wifi or any bells and whistles. Still work like a charm though, and battery life is still pretty good. Though, I didn’t use it much for about 6-7 years in the middle, and then light use for 3-4 years, but still, something like that to last 15 years, and still keep working is so nice!
I grew up poor, so always had to fill my library from the local used bookstores. I’m much better off today, but that always stuck with me. Plus, I like the feeling of giving an abandoned book a new home lol.
The used bookstores around here all started closing up years ago, but ebooks became popular around the same time, so I just made the switch. I kind of miss being able to use them as decor, but on the bright side, I can carry my entire library with me.
I wonder if there’s a spray, like you can buy a bottle of “new car smell” but for books? 😆 Would love to get a case for my ereader and spray the case with that.
Yeah, kind of same here. Wouldn’t categorize us as poor, but yeah, couldn’t afford tons of new books. Older books in my collection are all used books, though now I go for new books.
Funnily, I have never understood the smell part of it, even though whenever I mention liking physical books, it comes up. I just like the physical feel of the book. Getting the subconscious feel of how much I have read and how much is left by just looking at the pages. Just the overall feel of it.
I think mine might be that old, Sony PRS-505. It’s still in great shape with decent battery life (though the cover is massively flaking).
Yours might even be older than me. I have Sony PRS-350. It was released in 2010 (and when I bought it) PRS-505 was apparently released in 2008, don’t know when you bought it though.
And yeah, the official leather cover (bought separately) has broken down, during the time when I wasn’t using it. Device itself works like a charm though.