Before I go further, I need to explain something due to a possible conflict of interest. My husband is a mutual fund portfolio manager for a major investment firm. As part of his portfolio, he has shares in Chapters Indigo Bookstores, which is a major chain in Canada. Now this obviously has one major perk: he’s happy when I buy books from the store because I’m supporting one of his companies. Talk about a win-win situation.
A few weeks ago, Chapters released the eReader Kobo (also found in Borders in the US). My husband came home one day and this was our conversation:
Him: So, would you be interested in buying the Kobo and trying it out?
Me: (blank look)
Him: You read a lot, so you could tell me what you think of it.
Me: (blank look transforms to incredulous one) But . . . but I love the feel of the pages as I turn them. I love the smell of the paper. And I love seeing them on my bookshelf.
Him: (blank look)
Me: And what if I hate it? Then what?
Him: Then I’ll consider the money part of doing business. You read books. I don’t (he’s too busy reading financial reports). Just consider it research.
That was the magic word: Research.
I love research.
So I ordered the Kobo and patiently (see, I can be patient) waited for it to be delivered. It came the same day as Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead. Sorry, sweetie (yes, my adoring hubby is reading this), but Rose, Dimitri, and Adrian were bigger priorities.
But I did finally try the Kobo this weekend, and the following is my opinion of it, and of eReaders in general:
As you can see from this picture, the Kobo is a lot skinnier than Spirit Bound. I read in bed while cozying up to my incredibly sexy smart husband. The weight of Spirit Bound was uncomfortable on my sternum. So that’s a plus for the Kobo.
The covers on Kobo are black and white. Okay, maybe that isn’t a big deal, but I’m so a cover girl (and not the model variety).
As you can see in this picture, my bookshelves are getting a little crowded (and that's not all of my books). The Kobo can hold up to 1000 ebooks, and you can store even more on a memory card. The Kobo even comes with 100 classics (including Jane Austen, which I already own). The negative part is that you can’t just glance at the shelf and grab a book. You have to either know the author’s name or the title of the book you want to read on the Kobo (eReader), or you're searching through a lot of books.
There is one major perk, though. My seven-year-old son’s bookshelf is a huge disaster (despite how many times I tell him to tidy it). Having his books on the eReader would keep me sane.
There are some books which I love to reread portions of again and again. Especially the hot make out scenes the wonderful descriptions. Yep, I can tell you where they all are in Spirit Bound. I couldn’t do that with the Kobo. Other eReaders may have a function that allows you to bookmark all the steamy good parts.
The Kobo has to be recharged through the computer. Apparently, the charge is good for two weeks. So while the Kobo will allow me to pack less in terms of books, I’ll have to bring my laptop with me if I travel for longer than two weeks. I guess that isn’t too big a deal since I’d want to have access to the internet anyway.
Another disadvantage is: what happens if something goes wrong with my Kobo? It’s hard for my real books to malfunction . . . other than if the pages fall out. Naturally, this is an issue for all eReaders (and I'm not referring to pages falling out).
And finally, with an eReader, I can’t lend my books (though I only do that with people who worship books like me) or donate used books. Maybe it's not a big deal, but it is a weakness of the systems nonetheless.
One of the big perks of the Kobo was the price. In Canada, it’s $150.00, which is much cheaper than the other eReaders. Of course, it doesn’t have some of the fancy features the others have. But if you're just looking at reading books, it's perfect.
Overall, I was happy with the device, and will be purchasing more books for it in the future. The downside is most of the books I buy are new releases, and I’m usually impatient to read them (this isn’t a problem with the Kindle). Think again if you expect me to wait several months before I buy Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins) and Last Sacrifice (Richelle Mead). My patience can only last so long, and, hey, they’re both the final books in two of my favorite series.
So what about you? What’s your take on the eReaders?