Why you need an ereader.

I’m going to tell it to you straight and you might not want to hear it, but here it is… you need an ebook reader.

‘Nah,’ you say. ‘I like real books. I like the way they smell and feel.’

You still need an ereader.

“Nah,’ you say. ‘I don’t like looking at computer screens for long periods of time.’

Neither do I, but good ereaders don’t have back-lit computer screens; they have something called ‘e-ink’ that approximates normal print on paper. No backlit pixels to make your eyes sore.

So, you still need an ereader.

‘Why?’ you say. ‘I’m perfectly happy with my print books’

Here’s why you need an ereader.

• The books are cheaper, and there’s masses that you can get free. Ones that are out of copyright & their authors dead ,and ones that authors are giving away to get a greater readership. Don’t even think about the pirated ones – that’s morally and legally wrong.
• An ereader gives you, via the internet, access to books that you would never have found before.  You can support writers who are writing interesting stuff that you love but wasn’t mainstream enough for the big publishers to pick up.
• You get instant purchase and delivery in your own home. No 10 day wait for print books you order online.
• The ereader is lighter than a print book, so easier to hold and carry.
• The ereader is slimmer than even the smallest book, it slips into your purse easily.
• You can carry thousands of books in your purse – I know what you’ll say. ‘Why would I want to?’  Believe me, when you’re stuck in traffic for 2 hrs and you finish your book after the first 30 mins, it’s great to have another book right there ready to go. And when you go on holiday, you don’t have to worry that all those books you want to read are taking up kilos of your luggage limit.
• No one can see the book cover, so you can read that hot romance in front of your mother and she’ll never know.
• No storage problems

That’s just if you’re a reader. If you’re a writer as well, I suggest that you get one with a touch screen and drawing/note taking capabilities (like my Sony), one that takes doc files so you can just slide your writing on without having to change the format (that puts the kindle out of the running).  I can annotate my ms by drawing directly on the screen, just as I would with a printed copy, or by typing notes. You’ll save paper because you won’t have to print your ms out to check it in the final stages. Just like with print, you see things on it that you missed on the computer, and you can carry on editing everywhere.  It’s great to be able to lie back in bed and leisurely check your book without great big A4 pages going everywhere.

Just one warning – don’t go rushing out to buy the first one you see. Think about what you want from your ereader. I’ve already written a post on choosing an ereader. Also note that they are a new technology, so they’re not without their problems, that’s why you should read the reviews of the different models carefully – or just get a Sony PSR 600 touch. I’m very happy with it. The pages turn quickly, it turns on and off quickly, the battery lasts well enough, I can make collections on the book that make it easy to find books and I can annotate my ms on it. It’s a bit slow in doing the notes, but newer models will only improve. You can’t download directly from Wifi either, you need a computer, but that’s not important for me.

Oh, and one other very important reason why you need an ereader – so you can read my book, if for whatever reason, you can’t get it in print.

Do you have an ereader yet? Are you planning on getting one? If not, why not?