Oh man, I am all about ebooks. For a while I was uncertain, and I was like, “AGH, but WHAT IF all the books become ebooks and what if it happens before my paper book is supposed to come out and I never get to, like, sign a real copy of my book?!?!?!” Which is total debut author freakout nonsense and A. not a real threat and B. not all that important in the grand scheme of things. I mean, I *don’t* want all books to become ebooks or only ebooks or whatever. But I’m over my authorly nervousness at never getting to hold/sign physical copies of something I wrote (you’ve signed one, you’ve signed them all, I always say), and having had my nook for about a month now, OMG I am so in love with ebooks.
First off, I really love the nook. I did tons of research on ereaders last winter and am still something of a walking ereader encyclopedia. (Note that last winter I was working like mad on a novel. This is what I do when I’m procrastinating–I obsessively research things I might want to buy.) Anyway, I decided the nook was for me, but I was still a little bit nervous about spending that much on something I wouldn’t *really* know whether I loved or not until I had it in my hot not-so-little hands. But I have to tell you that I absolutely love it. Here, allow me to count the ways.
1. I love that the words look like they’re on paper, *but they’re not.* This is way cool. Obviously. And it doesn’t hurt my eyes, at least no more than reading regular books would, and certainly hurts less than staring at a computer screen.
2. I love the way the buttons click when I turn the page. I mean it. LOVE. I like pushing buttons and I am especially pleased by buttons that click. Add to that the fact that I have to press said button fairly often–over a hundred times per book–and I am in some kind of button-pushing paradise.
3. I love that I don’t have to worry how big the text is printed or if the publisher tried to cram too many words on the pages of the paperback version or whatever. There have been books I’ve passed up in the past because the layout of the text was too hard to read or was just not aesthetically pleasing. But now I don’t have that problem. I haven’t had to yet, but I could change the font or the font size if I wanted to.
4. I love that I can get library books without having to leave my couch. (Assuming my laptop and my connector cord are in reach.) And, er, even if I do have to get up off the couch, I don’t have to leave the house. And I don’t have to leave the house to return the books either. The same goes for buying books. And with buying books, I find it amazingly freeing that the “store” is never going to be out of the book I want (like when the B&N website said that my local store had Pretty Little Liars book 5, but when I got there, they only had 1-4 and 7-8 and I was DISAPPOINTED), and the buying them online is instant because they don’t have to come in the mail.
Another thing I like about ebooks is that I can’t accidentally bend the pages all wonky, which I have a tendency to do. I can, however, in my constantly pressing too hard on things way, push a little too hard on the bottom edges of the nook and turn the little color screen on when I don’t mean to. I’m guessing this wouldn’t be a problem for most people, though.
The back of the nook is supposed to feel like a real book, to simulate holding one in your hand. This makes me think of those things you get to train your cats to use the toilet, the ones you put on the seat that are supposed to make the cats feel like they’re digging in litter even when they’re not. I don’t know if the back of the nook feels just like a book, but it feels okay. I have no qualms with it.
The nook also comes with chess and sudoku. I could care less about the chess, but I’ve become kind of addicted to sudoku, which eats up the battery because you have to use the touch screen so much. But, you know, I could also just not play. If I was some kind of superhuman person with the strength to say no.
I *do* worry that I’ll get all into ebooks and then there’ll be an apocalypse that kills all forms of electricity and then I won’t be able to charge it in order to read and THEN won’t I be sorry I ever read digital books instead of the kind I grew up with. But also I figure if there’s some kind of apocalypse that wipes out all our electrical outlets and such, then I’ll probably have bigger problems than how to charge my nook.
