She always does that. Sheesh.
OK, it appears that I don't have a proper picture of my reading area, but in the largest part of our apartment the wife and I set up books that wrap around the room. There are thousands, and we love them all.
So, I really don't need an e-reader. But, being a geek, I couldn't resist looking into these neat devices to see if one of them would work out for me.
The Kindle came first. I remember sitting in a history seminar class on Abelard and Heloise when a student whipped a Kindle to look up a passage (much to the oohs and ahhs of our classamtes). He punched in 'Abelard and Heloise' and waited.
And Kindle didn't have it.
This was fun, for me, because it was obvious that he hadn't read the book at all (or he would have known that it wasn't available) and he got frustrated saying that he thought everything was on the Kindle. (My copy of the book was around $5. The Kindle is going for $140, right now, but it was much more back then.)
The next one I saw (personally) was the iPad's application for reading books. (I know, the Nook was first. I'll get to it.) Starting at $500 (and going beyond $800) this was a very expensive solution. I already have a laptop that was not only less than half of that price, but it is actually smaller than an iPad. And with Google Books and other online e-book options I've got a lot of online reading I can already do. (In fact, last week I forgot my copy of Hawking's 'Brief History of Time' and found a free e-book online that I used during class.) The iPad certainly makes many customers happy with its many applications, but I can't justify that kind of an expenditure for a device that I don't need.
Lastly, I finally got around to seeing Barnes & Nobles' Nook. And I liked it. It's small and light, and it's really easy to read. It is a lot cheaper than an iPad and can actually fit in a jacket pocket. Not bad, but what can I read on it? The sample one in the store had 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' pulled up, but that's not what I would use an e-reader for. I typed in a search for "Peter Brown" and waited. And waited. It took a while, but the Nook finally told me that my search turned up no results.
Nothing by Peter Brown? He's the most famous historian of late antiquity! This confirmed what I had been hearing: these fun e-readers are no good for the academic. I can read novels on them, sure, but novels are 50 cents at the local bookstore, and I would have to buy a LOT of those before anyone's e-reader every paid for itself. Also, I can't take notes on the pages. (Not that it matters, since academic books are in short supply on those things.) Of course, I've only mentioned three of the many e-readers out there, but I think I learned what I needed to learn.
I'm sure the e-reader is right for plenty of people, but, as for me, I'll sit by my fireplace and read my old books in my favorite chair. And I'll mark in them all I want (except for the antiques).
