My first e-reader

I’m a Luddite when it comes to the latest technology. iPhone, iPod, iPad – i don’t wanna know. It’s a curious thing for someone who is otherwise au fait with publishing technology. I mean, I’ve been developing ebooks for the past year, but I’ve been using a browser to test the appearance of epub files. That’s worked fine so far. But when you realise you eventually need to take ebooks to market, and that you need to demonstrate how this is to work, you also realise you need to get what’s being used in the publishing market.

And so I researched e-ink e-readers – looked at the reviews, read what others thought of them, and checked out what worked well. Sure, there was a lot of hype about the big names – Kindle, Kobo, Sony – but I kept going back to the BeBook. A couple of years ago, I learned about the BeBook (back then there was only the BeBook One) when a group of us at work listened to a sales rep hark on about the technology.

I recently found that the newer BeBook Club was available through Dymocks, and I was impressed by the number of ebook formats and image types that it could support. More than the Kindle or Kobo, which are pretty much tied in to particular ebook retailers and their formats. I wanted an e-reader to test ebooks, and the Club ticked all the boxes. The BeBook even has an online forum and support centre where you can get the latest news and “firmware” updates.

So after a month of using it, my impression is an overwhelming – meh! It’s average. Maybe it’s because I’m used to the familiarity (and colour screen) of a netbook or laptop. Maybe it’s because I’m dazzled by the current hype of tablets (and their colour screens). And to get an e-ink e-reader in the middle of a tablet revolution seems a little like wanting to use a card catalogue at a library.

Well, I tested the e-reader by loading a simple epub file with a few graphics and got a feel for the buttons. You can do a few nifty things like turn the display 90 degrees either way, or increase the font size, or view the table of contents of a book to jump to a section of the book, or even set up a “slide show” mode – you set the time interval in seconds and the book will automatically move to the next page without needing to press a button. But to access all these functions, you need to hit the MENU button, then use the cursor buttons to scroll to a function, then set what you want, then go back to the book you were reading - it takes a little time to set up things on the fly. It’d be good if you could set up your preferred reading options once and for all, but with some things – like the slideshow – you lose what you set every time you switch off the e-reader. Which means every time you “boot up” (and the BeBook takes 30 seconds to boot up and another 30 seconds to open the previously read book) you need to thumb through the menu settings again.

So I’ll be bringing out the e-reader on a regular basis – probably once a month – just to test new ebooks; I certainly wouldn’t use one for recreational reading. I salute those with the courage and intestinal fortitude to use their Kindle on the train or even while walking to work (!). I’ll wait to see what’s around the corner (probably another Luddite shaking their head).