Get thee to an eReader

I don't read nearly as much as I feel that I should, even though I know that I read a whole hell of a lot more than most people do. Shoot, even if you only count the comic books I read, I still read a whole hell of a lot more than most people do. With that said, I recently started counting in my head how many books I've read since last June. Sure, a lot of those books remain unfinished, as I lost interest about halfway through. Not counting those, I've read about six or seven (can't remember off the top of my head) entire books since then. That's not too shabby, I'd say.

Why would I pick such an arbitrary starting point as June? See, June is when I bought my eReader, or my Nook, to be specific. I think it's pretty safe to say that having bought this trusty little device has led to me reading much more than I probably would have normally. Although I already wrote about it, I just have to say that if you like to read at all, you really need to get one of these things. I'm happy with my Nook, but I imagine that the Kindle or Sony's eReader are just fine as well. Even though the Kindle doesn't read ePub files, I'm starting to see Kindle-specific files and PDF's on some of the sites that offer public domain books.

Somehow, I doubt that I'm the only person with an eReader who now reads more. One of the reasons is that it's so darned handy. It's far easier to read the Nook at the dinner table than an actual book, as I don't have to hold any pages down. It's also easy to read while I'm feeding/burping Logan. The size is also nice, as it's smaller than an average book. That will make it nice to carry with me the next time I go out of town for a few days.

Even though I'd recommend one to anybody who likes to read, I have to give a warning about the Nookcolor. When I first heard about it, I was contemplating getting one. After all, it can do all the things that my Nook can do, but it's all in color, and users can subscribe to magazines like National Geographic. I got a chance to check one out at Best Buy though, and I'd have to recommend against it. At least, if all you want to do is read books, then your more standard eReader is the way to go. With those, it's as easy on your eyes as reading a real book. With this new color device, it's like looking at a computer screen. I can't imagine reading an entire novel this way.

What I'm really hoping for is that one day these will come down so much in price that they'll be used in the classroom. Imagine a student having all of the novels and textbooks on one eReader. Sound expensive? How much do you think all of those books cost? Shoot, I know that students are fined about $100 if they lose the literature book - and that's just one of them. Yeah, I know, those textbook companies have quite a hold on the school system, but how can they maintain it when budgets are constantly cut back? Getting the kids eReaders might be the only way to go.

It was once said that you could get a good sense for how a kid is going to do in school based on whether or not their parents had a bookshelf full of books in the house. While I think that I will always want to have some old fashioned copies of certain books, I know that an eReader will be one of the first things that I'll make sure my son has when he's old enough to read.

Oh, and for eReader newbies, here are some great places for free books:

Project Gutenberg

Feedbooks

Google Books

Project Gutenberg Australia

Internet Archive