Having not seen the point of e-readers the past couple of years—I’m wedded to paper, the touch, the smell, the rustle and slow slap of turning pages—I’m now considering buying one. To be honest, more out of professional curiosity than anything.
I want to know how my readers’ experience of one of my books changes when they consume it via an e-reader. I’m wondering if e-readers will eventually, insidiously change the way I need to write, much as the movie culture has changed the nature of commercial fiction and the online culture probably is, only I haven’t figured out precisely how yet.
The more I think about buying an e-reader, the more interested I am. But then...I have to decide: which one?
I’m veering away from the Kindle, finding its proprietary formats manipulative and exclusive. The Sony e-reader comes from a company whose technology I respect, but you don’t hear a lot about it these days. The nook...ah, yes, I’m definitely intrigued by the nook. But is it too soon to buy? Is there a better model just around the corner? And now they’re saying Apple will come out with something fabulous (but larger format and expensive?) in April.
What’s a reader to do? If you’ve been through this decision process I’d love to know where you got to and how pleased you are with the result.
Of course, if this all gets to hard, I’ll just resort to the writer’s greatest skill: procrastination.
