For Sale, For Sale, e-Reader For Sale

I've come to the conclusion that I don't need two e-readers. I know, I know, I had said that I was not going to do copyediting on my Kindle, but it's turned out to be much easier than I expected and it's become too much effort to bounce back and forth between e-readers. So after some consideration, I'm putting my Sony Reader Touch Edition (PRS-600) on the market. This reader is less than three months old and is in practically new condition. No damage at all to the unit. Included with the e-reader: leather cover, USB cable, A/C adapter, and padded slip-cover. Also included, original boxes and documentation for the e-reader and cover.

Asking price is $80 (includes shipping in the continental U.S.). Preferred payment method is PayPal. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have or with your best offer.

***UPDATE***

Thank you to everyone for their interest. My Sony Reader is now sold and on its way to a new home!

Amazon's Leather Cover with Built-in Light

I’ve had my Kindle for a week now, and I’m still loving it every bit as much as the first day I received it, if not more. I haven’t come across anything that’s given me pause or concern with it. I had vowed to myself to not use it for copyediting, but that went out the window a couple of days later. But it’s actually pretty easy to use for copyediting; much easier than I anticipated. However, I think I’m going to try to keep using it for copyediting to a minimum, using it instead for pleasure reading. In my mind, I need that type of delineation.

I want to take a moment to discuss the cover I bought for my Kindle. I know this might not interest many folks, but I spent a good amount of time researching my options because the covers are pretty pricey. I went with the leather cover with built-in light from Amazon. It sells for $59.99, and before I spent that amount of money on a cover, I wanted to dig up as much information about it as I could.

The cover is very sturdy and offers great protection to the Kindle. The inside of the cover is a felt-type material that is gentle on the screen of the Kindle and is nice to hold while you read. One of biggest pluses of this cover is that it is a fold-around, allowing the reader to hold the Kindle with one hand while reading. Without this capability, this cover would lose much of its appeal. There is also an elastic band on the outside of the cover to ensure the cover remains closed at all times, which is nice because it offers added protection to the Kindle.

The really sweet perk of this cover is the built-in light that comes with it. No batteries are needed since the Kindle itself powers the light. This is nice because one of the problems I always seemed to run into was batteries dying in my reading light, especially when I travel. Now I don’t have to worry about that. The light is very bright and directed to fall across the screen. I have no “blind” or “dark” spots at all, as the entire screen is well lit. The upper-right corner, where the light is fixed to the cover, is a bit brighter than the rest of the screen. The battery drain is not excessive; in fact, it’s much less than I expected, and I use the light thirty minutes to an hour each night.

The only gripe I have with this cover—if it can even be called a gripe—is that the light is a bit difficult to pull out from the cover. But this is getting easier the more I use it, so it is—or was—a minor inconvenience. Another concern I had before getting this cover was the weight it would add to the Kindle, but it’s not bad. The weight roughly doubled when the cover was attached, but I can still comfortably hold the Kindle with one hand. I will gladly take the extra weight for the added protection this cover offers.

In the end, I would happily recommend this high-quality cover to those who are serious about protecting their Kindle and want the convenience of always having a light available for reading. Especially if you do a lot of reading at night and/or in bed. It is pricey, but when you figure the cover itself goes for $34.99, $25 for a good quality reading light specifically designed for the Kindle is not outrageous. I saw separate clip-on lights for the Kindle selling for $19.99 and $24.99. If you want protection for your Kindle but are not concerned about the light, Amazon offers the same cover without the light for $34.99. Both cover options come in a variety of colors, so you should be able to find one you like.

I’m not exaggerating when I say this cover has completed my Kindle experience. I can read anywhere, anytime. And I have the protection for my Kindle that I’ve been looking for. Not to mention, it is a very nice looking cover.

For another review of this cover, check out this review.

5 out of 5 stars.

A Little Kindle Gushing

If you're a die-hard paper book, a.k.a. "real" book, lover, then you might not enjoy this post much. So you may want to stop reading right now.

I had gone back and forth for more than six months about which e-reader to purchase. I had narrowed it down to two in particular, the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle. A couple of months ago I got a great deal on a Sony Reader Touch, so I went with that one. And I was pleased with it at the time. And then some events happened recently, and I ended up purchasing an Amazon Kindle.

To say that I was "blown away" when I opened up the packaging and turned on my new Kindle would be an understatment. And today Misty Baker, a.k.a. KindleObsessed, reminded me via Twitter: "Now you are going to have to write an article about your kindle since you were praising your Sony eReader." So here is my obligatory post to renounce any allegiance I may have had to my Sony Reader.

Now I'm not going to toss my Sony Reader into the garbage or donate it to Goodwill, but it will pretty much be relegated to copyediting duties. I don't really see me using it for pleasure reading any longer. Heck, I'm having a difficult time seeing my paper books being used for pleasure reading in the near future.

Every concern I had about the Amazon Kindle has been shattered in the last 24 hours. I literally felt bowled over when I pulled it out of its packaging and turned it on. The e-ink is absolutely amazing. I don't know how they did it, but it is actually easier to read than paper books. Yes, it is much more eye-friendly to me. And anywhere you can read a paper book, you can read the Kindle. Direct sunlight? No problem. Low light? Got it covered.

And Amazon knows what they are doing from a marketing standpoint. It is super-easy to search the Kindle Store and to buy books. And I get them delivered directly to my Kindle in less than 60 seconds. I push a button to buy a book, and bang!, it's there in a minute. May I remind you that I live out in the sticks, in a very rural part of North Carolina. I can sit on my back porch and get books in a very short time. My wife will probably be writing to the folks at Amazon condemning them and wishing them very painful deaths.

I could go on and on about everything I love about my new Kindle. About how I'm going to be reading tons of great indie authors. About how I'll probably increase my reading output. About how I'm going to save a lot of space in our house. But I'll keep it simple. You know how some folks talk about love at first sight? Well, for me, all it took was one look.

The Amazon Kindle is superior to the Sony Reader Touch in every aspect, in my opinion. Other than the Sony has a touch-screen, which is good at times, but can be a hinderance too. Amazon has put out a tremendous product and has streamlined the shopping/delivery process for getting content to the Kindle. I've been intrigued by e-books since I began looking into them a year or so ago, but now I'm totally sold on them, and I'm sold on the Kindle. It's no competition in my book; I wholeheartedly recommend the Kindle as THE e-reader if you're thinking of getting one. And even if you're not thinking of getting one, you should.

Digital, Not Paper, Please

As we drove away from Books-A-Million for the last time, I turned to my wife and said, "I don't know how many more paper books I'll be buying in the future." My wife and I had a good chuckle at my comment and I didn't give it much more thought for the rest of that day. But in the following days, I reflected on that comment and began to wonder just how true it was.

There are pros and cons for both sides of the argument about digital versus paper. But I'm going to look at this from a purely selfish standpoint right now. I'm not looking at what I can collect, even though I have a collector's heart. I'm not thinking about how impressive my book collection appears, even though I love it when people visit my home and say, "Wow! That's a lot of books." And I'm not going to focus on being able to pass something down to my children, although I want my kids to enjoy the wonderful books I've discovered (I still can do this electronically, I guess).

I'm looking at the pure economics of this. I don't see why I should pay $7.99, $9.99, $12.99, or $15.99 for a physical copy of a book, when I can by the e-book version for anywhere from $2.99 to $5.99. It just doesn't make any sense to me. I'm interested in the story. That's it. Not collecting, not displaying, and not passing on. I just want to read the story. And you might say, "Wait, you have to buy the e-reader first." Yes, I do. But I can pay around $150 for an e-reader or I can spend an extra $300 or more on buying the paper versions. (This is based on an average $3 in savings per e-book for 100 e-books. I've seen some only $1.00 cheaper and I've seen some $10 cheaper.)

So from a purely selfish standpoint, I think I will say, "Digital, not paper, please." Now don't get me wrong, I'll still probably stop by the used bookstore from time to time, and if a paper copy of a new book is cheaper than the e-book, I'll buy it. But for me, right now, it just doesn't make economic sense to choose paper.

Just a quick note about my first "real" book giveaway. If I get 100 followers on Twitter, I'll randomly pick one of my followers and send them a new copy of Jeff Strand's Dweller. See? I told you it would be simple for you to have a chance to win a "real" book. And if you haven't read this one, you're in for a treat.

My Digital Experience, So Far

I've got a few ideas for blog topics rattling around my head, but first I want to update this blog's design. And to do that, I need to figure out how to make the changes I want to the design. And that may take a while, because my internet service out here in the sticks is spotty, at best. So, I'm going to save those topics for a later time.

In the meantime, I'll give you a quick update of how my digital experience is faring so far. In case you didn't know, I bought an e-reader a little over a month ago. I purchased a Sony Reader Touch because I got it for fairly cheap. I had been waffling for a number of months between the Sony and Amazon's Kindle. The deal I got on the Sony, and its accompanying accessories, sealed the deal for me. At least, it did at the time.

My biggest gripe with the Kindle was that you could only read Kindle files on it. I guess I'm still a bit wary about that. But, in just the last month, it seems the Kindle train has been gaining speed, and it isn't any longer a matter of "if" the Kindle wins out, it's a matter of "when." There's a number of factors that make me believe this, but that's for another post. Needless to say, you would think I'd be ticked about buying a Sony. But I'm not.

Sure, my Sony has its quirks, but for the price I got it at and the content that's available for it, I'm pretty happy. Some of the file types don't do so great on it, and the one I'm most disappointed about is .pdf. They look fine when you load them, but most of the time the font size is too small to read. And when I zoom in, things get really strange. Indents and line breaks disappear, and the text becomes jumbled together. So now, I avoid .pdf files like the plague. I prefer using .epub, .lrf, and .doc files.

Yes, I did say .doc files. The Sony converts the .doc file to a compatible format when it's downloaded to the reader. And honestly, .doc files have performed the best on the reader. Which is a good thing for me, because the manuscripts I've been copyediting have been .doc files.

And the reason I most enjoy my Sony e-reader is the touch screen. It took me a little while to get used to using it for notes, but now I LOVE using the touch screen. It's made working on copyediting projects much easier, because I don't like reading on a regular computer screen for too long. The reader is easy on the eyes and taking notes is a breeze with the touch screen.

I know I'll end up with a Kindle at some point. Probably in the not-too-distant future. And my wife has decided she wants one too. In the meantime, I've downloaded the Kindle for PC and use it to open the few .mobi files I have. Plus, it gives us a chance to try out the Kindle interface for free.

But I'm not disappointed in the least about my investment in my Sony Reader Touch. It's proved to be a useful tool so far, and as long as it holds up, it should continue to be useful in the future. But unless you plan on doing a lot of note-taking or reading of MS Word documents on your reader, I'd recommend the Kindle to everyone. Eventually, it will win the e-reader "war," just like Blu-Ray beat out HD DVD's.

One thing I'm sure of, though, is that I'm sold on e-books. I didn't know what it would be like reading books on an electronic device, but it's become an absolute pleasure to me. I actually prefer to read my books in e-book format now. There is none of the eye strain that you get from computer screens. Heck, I don't notice any additional eye strain when I read on my e-reader.

I didn't think it would happen so quick, but it has. I'm a born-again e-book believer.