First impressions on PRS-505
[ Posted by Janka ]
I now have my e-book reader that I decided to get as part of my ongoing efforts at reducing use of material (in this case, dead trees). For to put this in perspective, it is was quite typical for me to buy 1-3 books in a week, at least half of those ones I had no intention to read twice. I had already cut this down to half with the use of libraries, but it still regularly happened that I bought a book (any book would do) simply because I had nothing to read with me and was bored waiting for a bus, or dreading a very boring bus ride home.
This habit was not really a problem to me economically as I was quite content with one or two euro throw-away books from sales (the Kirjatori bargain books chain is awesome!), but it started to bother me what amount of paper I simply bought to throw away. Not to even mention the amount of scientific articles I printed out and then abandoned.
I have had the device for about a week now, and I love it. The e-ink is very pleasant to read. I tend to forget it is high technology, and then startle when I realize it really is a totally new kind of screen I am holding. It is not backlit, so requires a light to read, about the same intensity as any book—but in southern Finland buses and bus stations tend to be well-lit, and even street lights are often bright enough so that I can read while walking on the street. (Yes, I do, sue me.)
A friend recommeded the third-party software calibre for managing my ebook library and for conversions between various formats, and it has proved to be a regular treasure. Very easy to use, does what I want, and apparently also allows various bits of python and regexp magic if to be inserted if it does not (I have not touche those, but it is nice to know I could).
Project Gutenberg has proved to be another source of endless delight, and while I knew that PDF availability is the norm for journals, theses, and science fiction magazines these days, it still surprised me how much likelier I am to read them if I carry a full library of them around in my bag all the time. The ability to choose on a whim what to read and to change my mind after 15 minutes if I get tired, on that 1.5 hours of daily commute, has proven something I dearly value, despite not having missed it before.
The commute also brought another funny realization. When I say that I "do not really manage to take the time to read, these days" it means I "only" read about two hours daily – a little bit over an hour on the commute, and a little less than that at home while eating or when going to bed – and go through roughly a novel a week. I think my standards for "not reading" might need calibration.
I have no idea how well the battery lasts. It has not ran out yet, with that daily commute, nor has the battery meter budged at all. I have plugged it in to the USB three times, for about 20 minutes each, to update the library; I think it recharges a bit every time. If this is what charging it needs, fine with me.
There has to be downsides, so I am trying to think some. Ok, the screen could be slightly bigger – but not much, since I want this to be a carry-on device. The "flashy" effect of changing pages was slightly annoying to begin with, but I got used to it fast and now do not really even notice. If you want to read a book you have not once opened yet, or one that you have in a bigger or smaller font, it can take quite some time for it to crunch through it the first time to prepare it to the memory or something such; the idea apparently is that it is better to do it once than every five minutes during your reading. (Returning to bookmarks of stuff you are currently reading seems to be fast enough, though.)
It remains to be seen if I will use it this much in the future to, but right now I have no idea how I ever could survive the bus trips without.
