Everything you didn’t know you wanted to know about ebooks

Last night, I mentioned that I should do a post about ebooks. Not only because I have opinions – about ebooks and everything in general – but also because my experience with them might be useful to you [1. Both of you. ]

A few weeks ago, a friend and former library school classmate posted about acquiring a Kobo e-reader. I have seen these things in person, and they are as easy to use as she describes. They are light, portable and the screen is easy to look at. The other nice thing about them is that you can read any document (or ebook) which is in the PDF format – meaning, you can purchase ebooks in other places as long as they are in the PDF format and use them on your Kobo.

(This was always my beef with the Kindle, Amazon’s e-reader: the books were in a proprietary format which couldn’t be used on any other e-reader, and you couldn’t read ebooks that weren’t that format on the Kindle. Oh, and it wasn’t available in Canada. Now it is, and now you can read PDFs on it, but you still can’t read Amazon ebooks on other devices, as far as I can tell. Also it does have a wireless connection, so there’s that too.)

When it comes to ebook readers and platforms, I’m something of an overachiever. I have a Sony eBook Reader (more about that in a sec), three separate ebook readers on my iPod (Ereader, Stanza [2. Which I hardly use because earlier versions had lousy formatting. ] and Kobo) and two e-reader platforms on my laptop (Adobe Digital Editions and Mobipocket). It would take charts, spreadsheets and interpretive dance to explain what works with what, but here goes nothing:

• Ereader and Mobipocket don’t work with anything else. Ebooks I buy in those formats can only be read in those programs, but since I use each program for different reasons on different devices, it doesn’t really matter.
• Mobipocket is intended for handheld devices, such as Blackberries and Palm Pilots, but I only use it on my laptop. The advantages are that I can make it full screen, and change the size of the font to make it smaller or larger, and make the layout whole page, two or three columns. Primarily, I read books on here when I’m knitting because it’s easy to make the text a readable size and go to the next page without having to put everything down.
• Adobe Digital Editions works with almost everything. As long as I purchase a book in a PDF format (secure or otherwise) I can read it in this program, or load it onto the Sony.
• In ADE, I can make the book almost full screen, but not quite. I can’t change the number of columns displayed, only the number of pages, and I can’t increase or decrease the size of the font, only the amount of magnification. This is slightly annoying because if I want to display two pages on the screen, the type is crazy small, but if I want to be able to read the text, I only get a few paragraphs on the page.
• I really, really want to like the Kobo platform. Really. I tried reading an ebook on it and got more than slightly frustrated with how long it took to “turn” a page – 3 seconds doesn’t sound like a lot, but when it takes less than a fraction of a second in/on other devices, it’s a big wait. Plus, you think maybe you haven’t tapped the corner/side hard enough so you tap it again, and suddenly you’re three pages too far.
• My favourite platform for a non-laptop is Ereader. I can change the size of the font, the colour of the text and background (you can also do this in Kobo), and the orientation on the page. Yes, it’s a tiny screen and it takes getting used to. However, since I always have my iPod with me anyways I don’t have to lug around a separate device.

As for the Sony eReader: while I like that I can have many books on it at one time and can purchase books from a variety of sources (not just the Sony eReader Store), it does have some drawbacks:

• It is a battery hog, and takes forever to charge.
• Maybe it’s just my laptop, but when I plug it in to synch it with the Sony program, my laptop goes a little crazy. “Hey – there are ebooks on here!” it tells me. “Wait… there are also sound files [3. I can also put audiobooks on the device, but since I'm not a fan of audiobooks, I don't. ] – want me to open iTunes?” it says in a puzzled tone. “Hold on a sec… there are pictures on here! Can I open a photo editing program for you?” By now, it’s got that puffy-eyed look that small children get right before they burst into tears, and I want to hug it and tell it that it’s okay, don’t open anything – just synch with the Sony program – but by now it’s melting down and the whole thing freezes and I have to throw my hands in the air. [4. Yes, I assign human characteristics to my technical devices - doesn't everyone? ]
• It also takes forever to turn a page.
• Apparently, you are supposed to be able to take notes with it, but it’s never worked for me.

However! Other positives of the Sony: it has back lights, so if you’re reading in the dark you don’t kill your eyes; there are two card slots so you can add a lot more memory to it; and it has a stylus you can use to tap the screen to turn the page, instead of using the page turn buttons on the bottom of the screen.

AND! In case you thought I had run out of things to talk about (yeah… not happening), my library will soon be offering downloadable ebooks. I don’t have the details because the librarian who’s in charge of it won’t get off her ass and get me the details so I can start downloading them [5. For the record, that librarian would be me. Um. ]

Now, to answer the question everyone [6. Again, both of you. ] is asking: are paper books dead? Absolutely not! While I’m surrounded by devices great and small, my default book format is paper. I don’t have to worry about it running out of batteries, when I’m done with it I can give it to the library or give it to a friend to read without violating copyright and as much as most of us would like to think that technology is universal, it isn’t. There will always be people who don’t have/can’t afford/don’t have access to computers or devices, and paper books will always be there for them.

If you’ll excuse me, I have two rows of knitting needing to be done and I’m in the middle of a good chapter in my ebook.