- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
- Messages
- 9,786
Something completely different, but I thought I'd cast a line out to my fellow knife enthusiasts.
I've been in the throws of research trying to get my wife an e-reader for her birthday. First, some info on my wife. She is a massive book consumer. She is seriously involved in a local book club which consists of two authors, a history teacher and herself (holding an MA in communication studies)....They analyze a book to freak'n death and I wonder how the hell they get any pleasure out of it. The book club meets once a month and I have to be on my best behavior when we host it at our house (knives moved from living room to garage, KGD is required to wear pants in his own house - all that kind of stuff). My wife is a fast reader. She routinely goes on a crazy trying to find the book the day before the club meets and then she reads it in a big 3-h read fest. I'm not allowed to ask her any questions or say anything at this time, but since I also don't have to wear pants and I can sharpen my steel I'm pretty happy with it all.
Anyhow, for her B-day I went with an e-reader. However, I got it all screwed up and here is the research/morality tale for all you husbands out there thinking the best of things. See, the male brain operates differently from the female brain. I like me some books too, but I'm also a distractable fellow. Instead of reading a book in 3 h, I usually read it in 3 week intervals like when I'm sitting on the john or waiting in the clinic or trying to contradict somebody on the forums with some tidbit that will make me sound all intellectual. Anyhow, I gravitated towards this monstrosity - the Pan Novel which purports to do everything (and badly) from MP3 files to books to e-mail access. It is a poor man's IPAD and until I get a Rick Marchand knife for my B-day, I'm holding out on the IPAD for her ('Kay?).
Well, she liked the e-book thing, but the PAN was right out of Pan's Labyrinth. It works, but you have to be an e-geek and install apps and do-hicky's and the battery don't last long. Well, it just sucked all in living colour. This is a good little toy if you can't afford an IPAD and want an IPAD so you bought this thing to pretend its and IPAD but in the end its a piece of crap e-reader.
After trying to figure that thing out and my wife saying, 'honey you had good intentions, but this gift sucks ass'...I figured there was a need for some re-think on the subject. So, I went to Kobo. Kobo is the exact extreme. Its an e-reader that has hardly any do-hickies, it just reads books. The e-ink technology is such that the reader does not draw any power when showing script, it only uses power when changes pages. So the battery life is measured in page changes (30,000 page changes) rather than time. It comes with 100 free books pre-loaded and links to Chapters (one of the big retailers here in Canada). There is a wireless aspect to it (which is not worth the cost because navigating with this thing is not its forte). But the e-ink technology is wonderful, reads great, flips pages fast enough and it was cheap. The software installed on our vista-computers very easily and setting up an account to download a book is a breeze. My wife had her next book-club book uploaded in no time at all.
There are some technology gizmo's to it, like she can get books with her blackberry and send them to her e-reader, but that is something that will never happen. Likewise, after having entered in the WEP wireless code into the little bugger, its painfully obvious that you aren't going to navigate the shopping experience with this interface that ain't designed to do so. Best to do all the book buying on the computer and either send it to the e-reader or an SD-card.
Anyhow, just relating my experiences. Sometimes you might want an MP-3 player, MP-4 player, e-reader, PDA all wrapped up into one crappy package. Sometimes its just best to get an e-reader when what you really want to buy is an e-reader. Returning the crap-tastic PAN for a kobo was just what the wife wanted and she is super happy with this dedicated little gadget. I'm even looking forward to borrowing it from her on my next business trip. In fact, two Kobo's is probably in our future.
Anybody else starting the switch-over from print books to e-books? Perhaps you are all doing this and I'm just slow. However, those little e-readers are much more of a joy than trying to snuggle with than a laptop.
I've been in the throws of research trying to get my wife an e-reader for her birthday. First, some info on my wife. She is a massive book consumer. She is seriously involved in a local book club which consists of two authors, a history teacher and herself (holding an MA in communication studies)....They analyze a book to freak'n death and I wonder how the hell they get any pleasure out of it. The book club meets once a month and I have to be on my best behavior when we host it at our house (knives moved from living room to garage, KGD is required to wear pants in his own house - all that kind of stuff). My wife is a fast reader. She routinely goes on a crazy trying to find the book the day before the club meets and then she reads it in a big 3-h read fest. I'm not allowed to ask her any questions or say anything at this time, but since I also don't have to wear pants and I can sharpen my steel I'm pretty happy with it all.
Anyhow, for her B-day I went with an e-reader. However, I got it all screwed up and here is the research/morality tale for all you husbands out there thinking the best of things. See, the male brain operates differently from the female brain. I like me some books too, but I'm also a distractable fellow. Instead of reading a book in 3 h, I usually read it in 3 week intervals like when I'm sitting on the john or waiting in the clinic or trying to contradict somebody on the forums with some tidbit that will make me sound all intellectual. Anyhow, I gravitated towards this monstrosity - the Pan Novel which purports to do everything (and badly) from MP3 files to books to e-mail access. It is a poor man's IPAD and until I get a Rick Marchand knife for my B-day, I'm holding out on the IPAD for her ('Kay?).
Well, she liked the e-book thing, but the PAN was right out of Pan's Labyrinth. It works, but you have to be an e-geek and install apps and do-hicky's and the battery don't last long. Well, it just sucked all in living colour. This is a good little toy if you can't afford an IPAD and want an IPAD so you bought this thing to pretend its and IPAD but in the end its a piece of crap e-reader.
After trying to figure that thing out and my wife saying, 'honey you had good intentions, but this gift sucks ass'...I figured there was a need for some re-think on the subject. So, I went to Kobo. Kobo is the exact extreme. Its an e-reader that has hardly any do-hickies, it just reads books. The e-ink technology is such that the reader does not draw any power when showing script, it only uses power when changes pages. So the battery life is measured in page changes (30,000 page changes) rather than time. It comes with 100 free books pre-loaded and links to Chapters (one of the big retailers here in Canada). There is a wireless aspect to it (which is not worth the cost because navigating with this thing is not its forte). But the e-ink technology is wonderful, reads great, flips pages fast enough and it was cheap. The software installed on our vista-computers very easily and setting up an account to download a book is a breeze. My wife had her next book-club book uploaded in no time at all.
There are some technology gizmo's to it, like she can get books with her blackberry and send them to her e-reader, but that is something that will never happen. Likewise, after having entered in the WEP wireless code into the little bugger, its painfully obvious that you aren't going to navigate the shopping experience with this interface that ain't designed to do so. Best to do all the book buying on the computer and either send it to the e-reader or an SD-card.
Anyhow, just relating my experiences. Sometimes you might want an MP-3 player, MP-4 player, e-reader, PDA all wrapped up into one crappy package. Sometimes its just best to get an e-reader when what you really want to buy is an e-reader. Returning the crap-tastic PAN for a kobo was just what the wife wanted and she is super happy with this dedicated little gadget. I'm even looking forward to borrowing it from her on my next business trip. In fact, two Kobo's is probably in our future.
Anybody else starting the switch-over from print books to e-books? Perhaps you are all doing this and I'm just slow. However, those little e-readers are much more of a joy than trying to snuggle with than a laptop.
) I have several thousand books downloaded to my computer, just waiting to be read. Besides all the free book locations, there are public libraries that lend out the newest titles, so we don't give up any reading pleasures. 
