Well I've done it...something I said I would never do....I bought an e-reader. I don't know if I should feel happy or ashamed. :) As a book FANATIC it took me quite a while to actually decide if I wanted one...the push to get one was that one of my favorite authors (J.A Konrath/Jack Kilborn) has decided he is going to be publishing most of his new books on ebook. Thus the decision was made.
So here I am trying to decide which one to get, Kindle, Kobo, or a Sony eReader. After checking all the specs and what they offer, I decided on the Kobo. Comparing all the ereaders wasn't all that hard, each one has it's benefits and it's drawbacks. For instance, the Kindle has 2 gigs of memory where you can store approximately 1500 books. On the other hand the Kobo has only 1 gig of memory which stores approximately 1000 books (the math doesn't quite add up there huh??) , but they do allow you to insert an SD card where you can increase the memory up to five gigs. The Sony E-reader comes with 1 gig, and is not expandable.
The Kobo does not have Wi-Fi capabilities, where the Kindle does. Now, I could understand the concern if I wanted to surf the net or send messages with my e-reader...but I only want to read a book...so that wasn't a huge deal for me.
Included books??? Kindle-no, Sony e-reader-no, Kobo-yes. The Kobo comes with 100 classic novels already installed on it. Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Canterbury Tales etc. etc. This was a nice bonus as I have been wanting to read these books for quite some time, but never got around to it. The screen on the Kobo is 6" diagonally, and is not back lit. The Kindle is the same size, while the Sony is like 5" and you can't change the size of the display.
Functionality of the Kobo is a bit clunky, no bells and whistles on it. You open the book and push a button to turn the page...taadaa the end. I can't tell you about the Kindle or Sony E-reader as I couldn't get my hands on one to check it out. The Kobo is a bit slow loading and changing pages but hey...I'm not running a race, I'm reading a book.
Ok the first book I read on the Kobo was Bell Hollow: Ghost Hunter Files. This is the story of the haunting of a home in the Bell Hollow district of Nashville. When I first started reading the story I felt totally strange, holding this light little slab, and not worrying about breaking the books spine, or ripping the cover. Definitely a change for me.
The book is touted as a "true story" but I think 75% of it is total BS. Half of the "information" given in the book I believe is fictional, and honestly there is really no way to determine what happened to a single man living in a lean-too in the middle of the woods in 1750! I mean really...Anyway... look past all the stuff you think is crap and it is a decent book.
Oh! I have discovered that a lot of the ebooks don't have a spell checker looking them over. One line in this book stated "Jared poured creamed in his coffee" now I must confess grammatical/spelling errors in books DRIVES ME NUTS!!! Seriously spend some money and have someone read the book over for these things! Hell, I'll do it for FREE! UGH.
Anyway...all in all I love the Kobo, it does what I want it to, and the book selection isn't half bad.
Now I'm just rooting for Mr. Kilborn to hustle and get his books on Kobo!
Great review, hon. Almost makes me want one...Almost. xo
ReplyDeleteYeah, still think I'll go with Kindle if I ever get one. Needs to drop to about $100 before I get it, though.
ReplyDeleteAnd the self-publishing thing is also a big problem with ebooks now. So much easier for just ANYONE to put their book out there and sell it, and from that comes some pretty bad production value. Ah well...
Yeah, but there's always the chance you may just run into the most amazing author there ever was in a specific genre....I've actually found an author called Tananarive Due...so something like that, who is supposed to be AMAZING in the horror genre! I bought one of her books from the Kobo site, and am exicted to read it...but I'm thinking Shiver or Hunger Games comes first :)
ReplyDeleteThe Kobo was 128...so I figured that was a good price. For an ereader I wasn't going to spend a lot. The Sony ereader is this little crappy thing and it's more than the Kindle...damn name brand bs.
Kyle for you the Kindle would probably be fine, because you are in the States. There are a TON of things you can't do with a Kindle, only because your in Canada. Something about the wi-fi and the kindle store...not to sure...they had a list of limitations a page long for Canadian customers.
ReplyDeleteCRAP! That was supposed to be the Kobo can hold 1000 books...not 100
ReplyDeleteYou can buy my ebooks on Smashwords.com. They're compatible with Kobo. :)
ReplyDeleteI want to read Shiver!!!! I almost bought it yesterday but went with the third book in the Wicked Lovely series instead. I know, I'm pathetic :-)
ReplyDeleteActually I am reading Shiver right now...it's kind of like Twilight...with fur.
ReplyDeleteThank you Joe!!! I'm heading there right now!!
Ok I am a HAPPY CAMPER now!!! Woohoo!! In literary heaven!
ReplyDeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteMy name is Jim Payne; and I wrote Bell Hollow using a pen name (McCaulley Haas).
I'm sorry about the confusion as to Bell Hollow being a true story. When the ebook was created, it did not include the copyright page which contains the "this is a work of fiction" verbiage you would normally see.
Bell Hollow was not intended to be taken as a true story; it doesn't make any claims to be so, and you are correct that it could not be if it told events from the 1700's and before. It was meant to be a simple of gaslight horror story in the vein of "Dark Shadows".
And you are also correct about the editing. But believe it or not; the printed copy contains the same error. I've come to believe that unless you are lucky enough to land a major publishing house you simply are not going to get good editing. The printed book has been out since 2006; and it is also available in a variety of formats including the Kindle, PDF, LIT, epub, and others. Yet you are the first person to actually catch that particular error. Ouch, sorry about that.
Thanks for reading, and I hope that you enjoyed it for what is was truly meant to be; just a good old-fashioned ghost story.
Jim