Ding Dong My Reader’s Dead!

A couple of years ago I made the unfortunate purchase of a Sony Reader Touch (prs-600). We had a contentious relationship from the beginning, thanks to its inability to hold a charge for more than 3 days and really bad customer support from Sony (in Texas AND India). It’s clunky interface didn’t help either.  I won’t bore you with the details but in summary, the Sony Reader sucks and Sony customer support is worse.

 

Two years after that misguided purchase I was so happy when I accidentally leaned my elbow on the reader, causing the screen to mush and bricking it. I don’t believe I’ve ever taken a frustrated hammer to a gadget or pc though there may have been a moment or two in the Nineties when a pc deserved it. Oh, the missed opportunities! It was truly satisfying to hammer that piece of  Sony shit.

 

Needing a new reader, I briefly considered a Kindle but still have trouble with the Orwell incident of 2009. I also considered skipping the reader altogether and going with an ipad, but I like e-ink for outdoor reading. I also didn’t want the time-sucking temptation of surfing the web. I’ll get an ipad later.

So I bought a Nook Simple Touch. And I love it. Love. It. The interface is extremely intuitive. I didn’t read the manual and I didn’t need to. Everything is where it is supposed to be. Every action is like an easter egg (read: yay!). Compared to the Sony POS, the entire Nook is an easter egg. The added bonus of the Nook holding a charge is nirvana to a recovering Sony sufferer. I’ve had it  since early November and have charged it 3 times. Of course it helps that I don’t have the wifi on unless I’m using it, but why would I? It’s for reading, not surfing. I can see rooting it someday but I’ll wait til the warranty runs out.

The one weakness I’ve found so far is the dictionary. You can look up a word, but you can’t search for a word. Also, sometimes the dictionary will give the root of the word you looked up as the definition, but you can’t look up that word from the definition. Kinda useless.

 

To protect this gem, I got a really cool cover from Oberon Design for christmas (Thanks Mom!). The cover is as equally impressive as the Nook itself, if not more-so. It’s a solid, finely crafted piece of usable art. I love the idea of mixing tech with old school – I feel like I’m reading from an old tome in a fantasy novel.

Here is a comprehensive review of the Oberon cover that illustrates features and what-not. Oberon Design makes more than just Nook covers  and are definitely worth a look for ipad, kindle and journal covers, sleeves for phones and readers, checkbooks, wallets,etc. They even have some cool jewelry. I think products are custom-made-to-order so patience is a virtue.

 

I know it sounds like I’m an affiliate for both Nook and Oberon, but I’m not. I truly like both and recommend them without benefit. Bluehost, however is another story. I am an affiliate but for good reason. I’ve used a lot of hosting companies over the years and they are the best. Use the link if you’re shopping for a hosting company