eReader: Pocket Readers

I purchased a new eReader this week (a PocketBook 360) and was directly involved in the purchase of another eReader (a Sony PRS-350) for my mom and I have to say that there's nothing like the buying rush of a new eReader for me. I'll sorely tempted to go out and purchase another three or four eReaders, just so I can pile them all up together and gaze lovingly at them.

Which isn't to say that I don't get a lot of use out of my current eReaders, because I do. And they're all *necessary* in their own ways, at least as far as "necessary" can be used in conjunction with an expensive electronic toy (I am acutely aware that I am very lucky both to have the money to indulge my hobbies and a family that supports me in doing so). My android phone is perfect for mobile reading and annotation (god bless Moon+ and its poor beleaguered creator who is always patient with me no matter how many emails I write him), my Nook Color is a delightful tablet (at least it is when B&N isn't trying to break my root with lackluster updates) that is wonderful for magazine reading and (again) Moon+ annotating, my adorable new PocketBook 360 (with sun-friendly eInk and a battery that can outlast my marathon reading sessions) will henceforth never leave my person (I bought a jacket with inner pockets specifically for this reason), and my Nook Classic (the first eReader I owned!) is necessary for long trips when my 700+ library might not be able to keep me occupied and thus I might need to connect to B&N over the 3G to buy and download new books right away. (The fact that I am never more than an hour from my house and I have enough reading material to last me the next 7 years does not prevent that irrational fear from keeping me awake at nights.)

So I didn't just buy a new eReader because I like putting all my eReaders in a pile and rolling luxuriously around on them. I had a serious use case (Reading on the run. Multi-tasking reading.) with serious requirements (SD card expansion. eInk. Size and weight limits.) and serious research was done in support of all that. But at the same time, I recognized that quite a lot of my rationalization for the "need" of this eReader was very "Step 3: Profit" in that I kept saying and really, truly believing, that this new eReader would make me read more. And while it's true that there are times when I don't whip my phone out to read even though I would like to (bright sunlight on walks to the car, or even just because I need to save the battery for that day because I won't be near a charger all day long), and that those times were "lost opportunity" costs in terms of reading, I was also able to admit to myself that the eReader solution to that problem wasn't going to equal a sudden uptick in books-read-per-week by any stretch of the imagination.

This realization - admitted to myself in the dead of night and when no one was listening - made me realize that I was at least as much motivated by the hunt for a pretty new shiny thing as I was for a cold, logical, rational "solution" to the problem that it's a long walk from my desk to my car every day and I really could be using that time more wisely. It's the same hunt that brings a flush to mom's cheeks when she's searching for a bargain on new shoes, and it's the same delight that Husband gets when he's buying new software to integrate into ARAT or KIP or any of the other software programs I request from him. And I really wish I could draw like my friend J.D., because her story of how she acquired a shiny new Kobo isn't too dissimilar (in the sense of dancing elves) than my own PocketBook hunt.

To be honest, I'm absolutely ecstatic that I got my PocketBook 360 (and I'm equally thrilled that we got my mother a Sony PRS-350 as an early Mother's Day present). And in some ways I am reading more because of it - it's the perfect size and weight to carry around the house and read while putting away dishes, sorting laundry, and playing video games with the other hand. I've always read this way with paper books (Odd that I wasn't diagnosed with A.D.D. until adulthood, and even then only as the most mild of cases. Does anyone else out there read, play video games, and watch movies at the same time, or is it just me? I really want to know if I'm normal or not.) and I was always a little sad that my eReaders didn't facilitate the same reading habits. Now with my adorable, perfect, wonderful little PocketBook 360, my life is complete - at least until the next toy comes along.

Update: My Amazon review video still hasn't posted to Amazon, but it is on YouTube now: