New e-book pricing scheme a surprising assault on the wallet

[KatyaR]

23. Ereaders have allowed me to keep reading.

I'm glaucoma suspect, have astigmatism, and am developing cataracts in both eyes. It's really hard for me to read, and I LOVE to read. When I was a kid, I'd read 10-12 books a week, some of them more than once. I used to read on my Palm device, and I really enjoyed it. In the last year or so it's become really difficult for me to read much of anything after working at a computer all day. My eyes are just horrible, and I hate missing out on reading.

I bought a refurbished Nook Color (original) and a 16GB micro-SD card and rooted it into a full Android tablet. I LOVE it. It's such a better size for me to read Twitter, email, play games, and surf the web, and it's still small enough to carry easily. I've purchased e-books from different retailers and I'm able to access all the books through standalone Android apps. I also have the Zinio app and am able to read magazines on it as well. I mainly use the Aldiko app and convert any books that aren't in epub format via the free Calibre computer program. It's a great way to manage your ebook library. And you can also read newspapers on them as well.

The ereader features most important to me are being able to increase font size and reversing the screen color. I like to read in bed with the lights out, and in Aldiko I can switch to a nighttime mode that I've preset with a black background and red lettering. I then lower the brightness level, and I can read until I fall asleep.

Plus there's the cool factor of knowing you can always have ALL of your favorite books with you all the time. And being able to actually SEE Angry Birds while you're playing it is a big plus (lol).

I also use it to keep policies, documentation, reports, etc., for work. It's very handy to take the Nook into a meeting and look up information online or in a saved file. Several of my coworkers have bought ereaders recently, and they all love them.

I've missed out on so many books throughout the years, and now I feel like I'm finally on my way to trying to catch up. Not that I ever really will, you know, but it's fun trying!