Of Books, Ebooks, Libraries and Such

I love to read. I read anything I can get my hands on. Paperbacks, newspapers, cereal boxes. The written word opens up a whole other world for me. Transporting me with a few carefully chosen phrases into an alternative universe where my problems and cares disappear and are replaced by my wildest imagination.

I remember more than the toys I had as a kid was the big box of Dr. Suess books my mom got for me. I love those books. They came complete with vinyl records for me to listen to. I think they were the precursor of the audio book. But with no record player to play the records on, they went to waste. No matter, Sesame Street took its place.

Technology has reshaped the way we read the written word today. Instead of flipping through the pages of a real ink and paper book, we scroll through them in html and pdf formats (among many others). Which brings me to my dilemma today. (My life must be so boring that I'm obsessing about a thing like this.)

While I love and adore the public libraries here to bits, I admit it does take a bit of an effort to go there, choose books, check them out and then return them afterward. I've discovered a treasure trove of free online romance (I'm shallow like dut, so sue me) reads and somehow it has made me less inclined to visit the library. Not when I can have tons of books to read without going out of my room and exceeding my borrowed books allowance.

But reading e-books on my laptop does take a toll on my shoulders and lower back. Especially since my chair is the antithesis of ergonomic. This gives me enough of a reason to consider an ebook reader. The bf has his own ebook reader now. A Nook from Barnes and Noble. I've tried fiddling with it and I must admit that its compact, handy and somehow approximates the book reading experience what with the leather cover that we bought for it.

But the Nook is strictly black and white and doesn't have a touch screen (well, actually it does, but only a small one on the bottom). That makes it harder to navigate websites when I'm reading my online finds.This made me consider the ipad. Even though I am definitely not an Apple fangirl and I don't own a single Apple product. But when I saw an ipad in action, I realized that I don't want one either. It's too big and unwieldy for me. Plus the complaints about it heating up and a less than ideal battery life(which is always the case with Apple). Kaya, no thank you na lang.

But I can't keep reading my ebooks on my laptop. My back pain might become a permanent occurrence. So I'm still on the hunt for a perfect ebook reader. May someone launch one soon.
In the meantime, if I want to read in bed, there's always good old ink and paper books from the trusty library to sustain me.