Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Bought an eReader!

I used to read. In fact I used to read a lot. When we first started RVing, I had my bedroom closet about 1/10 full of books and I would get through as many as ten of them over the winter. But the last few years I have almost stopped reading and am down to a book or two per year.

I have no real excuses. OK, my eyes tend to hurt after reading for a while and new glasses do not help. Maybe it is the poor lighting from my bedside lamp.

Anyway, I want to start reading again. My niece Robin and George were up for a visit and George had a Kobo ('Book' anagram) that he was happy with so I looked it up. Man, the prices of eReaders have come down! I remember when they were all up in the $200 region but the KOBO Aura was for sale for $100. I checked around and found one at our local London Drugs so I went and bought it. It is very light and about 4.5 X 6 inches, a little smaller than a paperback page.

I loaded a couple of books on it and started experimenting. The screen is very easy to read and has a backlight for when you need it. The font size can be increased slightly which is perfect for me. It has a 4 GB internal storage which holds 'up to' 3,000 books and I can add a Micro SD card if that is not enough.

I also found a free program on the Internet that makes managing books a lot easier and also converts my pdf books into epub format which the Kobo much prefers.

Maybe I will get back to reading again, It is worth the shot.


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13 comments:

  1. René and Jeanette GenereuxAugust 19, 2015 at 12:40 PM

    Croft, Surprisingly, I find myself reading my iPad mini - with novels - more now than ever before. And I never did believe I would enjoy reading on an electronic device. Who knew? I quite like it now.

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    1. CroftAugust 19, 2015 at 7:12 PM

      I expect it will increase my volume of reading.

      Delete
  2. normAugust 19, 2015 at 2:54 PM

    My Kindle is a back saver. I used to pack a whole bag of books when I flew south, now it is his and her's Kindles and that is it for my book pile. Linda still drags 20 lbs of paper media along because much of her study materials are not in digital form. It is still much better than before. The digital travel books are packed with links to hotels so it is a very simple thing to compare lodging and make reservations. I still lug a laptop along but I'm feeling more and more like a fossil around the smartphone people.

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  3. Frank and ChrisAugust 19, 2015 at 5:30 PM

    Hi Croft, you will love it, We download books also from the public library, just go to the library and update your card. Lots of wonderful free books for the asking and as long as you don't update anything u til you have finished reading them, you have lots of reading time. Enjoy

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    1. CroftAugust 19, 2015 at 7:06 PM

      I will sign up for a library card. Thanks for the tip.

      Delete
  4. our awesome travelsAugust 19, 2015 at 6:01 PM

    Love my Kobo Aura too, i bought a leather sleep cover on E bay for $10.00 shipped free from china got it in 10 days amazing.
    Hope to see you this fall can set you up with some great websites for spome amazing books to download . I now read one or 2 a week, Suzie almost one a day!

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    1. CroftAugust 19, 2015 at 7:08 PM

      I just ordered one of those Ebay sleep covers as well George. $10 and they are $40 here.

      Delete
  5. UnknownAugust 19, 2015 at 9:23 PM

    I have had a kobo for years and have never purchased a book ever, always borrowed from the library. I did unfortunately delete my old software to upgrade to new only to find our old computer no longer support this change. Anyhow we are down two computers and no money to buy anything newer. We will make do with our Ipads ( easy to read) and I do have my Ipod touch 6 and now I walk and listen to audio books with my fitbit busy numbering my steps. Ain't technology grand!
    I so love been able to enlarge the font size. What a great thing.


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    1. CroftAugust 19, 2015 at 11:09 PM

      Yes, reading and walking! My DIL has a wristwatch that counts her steps and communicates with her i-something and publishes the distance she runs on Facebook every morning. It's worse than having someone following you!

      Delete
  6. CroftAugust 20, 2015 at 7:26 AM

    Email comment from Al:

    I got into E readers a few of years ago. I got a Sony reader as a gift and after the Blackberry Playbooks flopped I bought one on the cheap and it came with a Kobo reader installed. It works well and the PB can be used to receive E-mails and browse through our wireless modem when I'm outside the RV under the awning reading.

    Now if only I van get my wife converted to E readers from hard copies!

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  7. RickAugust 20, 2015 at 7:40 AM

    I bought my first e-Reader (Sony) in 2009 and haven't read a paperback book since. I love it. I have a few hundred books stored in memory now so I'm able to easily take my book library with me wherever I go.

    Paulette is a big local Library fan and likes to download and listen to audiobooks. Personally, I can't stand audiobooks as the 'same voice' drives me crazy - especially when it's the same for all the characters. I like to imagine for myself what each character sounds like.

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  8. UnknownAugust 20, 2015 at 9:29 AM

    Funny you say that Rick, right now I am listening to one book with a female reading as a male part of the time and it is driving me nuts. Why not just have a male doing the reading like some of my other books.

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  9. CroftAugust 20, 2015 at 10:27 AM

    The first problem that has come to light is organizing my books. I moved many books from the library on my computer onto the Kobo and there are several that have priority but have become lost in the list. I downloaded Calibre, an organizing tool and one of it's features if allowing me to change the name of the book. I think I will be able to add an "a" or an "aaa" in front of the name of the books I want to read first.

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