Uncategorized

Sony Touch e-reader questions and answers

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post on life with a Sony Touch e-reader. As promised, here is a follow-up, in which I answer questions sent through to me on Twitter and that blog post.

If every book you wanted to read was available as an eBook, would you like to go 100% digital?

No. That one was easy! I can’t imagine living in a house without books. I find them so comforting, having shelves and shelves of books makes my house feel like home. There is simple, tactile joy that can only be found in holding a book. Whether people will feel this in fifty years time, I have no idea.

I know that if I love a book discovered in e-format, I will buy it in print if available. That might seem odd, but I like to keep my books around me. Like TimeSplash – when that goes into print, I am buying it. Even though I have it on my computer, my e-reader and recorded the whole thing, I still want it on my shelf.

Do you have to use Sony software with it on your pc? And is it as horrible as SonicStage, that came with their MD players?

It comes with its own library software, but I downloaded Calibre before I loaded it, and have stuck with Calibre as it’s so easy to use. I found the Sony software less intuitive, and it seems to gum up my poor old laptop terribly. I have no idea whether it’s as horrible as SonicStage, as I’ve never used it I’m afraid.

Do you get weird formatting issues, like @gothick found with his Kindle, even on non-free books?

Yes. See the original post about PDFs in particular. I have also read some ePub books with paragraphs changing font size and being bolded randomly. That tends to happen more with the free books, I’m sorry to say.

What’s battery life like?

Impressive. If I use the notes feature a lot it drains faster, unsurprisingly, but for standard reading it seems to last a long time.

Have you tried a Kindle… how does it compare? Is there a good selection of books, as you can’t use Amazon?

I haven’t used a Kindle. As for finding books, that certainly hasn’t been too much of a problem so far, but then again, I haven’t gone shopping for e-books as much as I’d like due to money constraints. Smashwords is easy to use and there are zillions of books on there, but I only to go find ones I’ve discovered elsewhere. Otherwise it’s a bit like panning for gold.

The thing about “publish in some other format as well as PDF” is that it makes the difficult question of what software to use even harder. What would you recommend?

I would give Calibre a go first as it’s free. I have no idea how reliable its conversions are in terms of formatting, with PDFs for example, it improves the paragraphs to a page problem, but the headers and footers remain troublesome.

Is it sploshproof? I like to read in the bath.

I wouldn’t risk it myself, but I have heard tell of people putting their e-readers in Ziploc bags and the like. They are braver than I.

If you have any questions, ask away 🙂