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Travels with my Netbook

I am increasingly happy with my HP Mini 210 netbook. I have deliberately and consciously been using it as my travel computer and my recreation station.

Pluses:

• 160G hard drive holds lots of music, the headphone sound is awesome and the inbuilt speakers are not bad at all for background music – it sounds like Dad’s old transistor radios
• I have downloaded several different ebook readers and have a collection of titles
• Photos are clear and bright
• Videos are fine – the screen resolution is good.

Minuses:

• The screen is a bit small BUT if I reduce  the size of the image it’s OK

I have been reading The Last of the Mohicans on the Whitcoulls Kobo reader, largely in airport lounges and in the very cramped seats of 737s.

Current collections?

I’ve just read an article from Crikey by Tom Cowie saying that the big Australian book distributor, Redtail Group (Borders and Angus & Robertson) is in financial crisis. This will, of course, impact us here – prices for printed books are rising, and I for one am now avoiding purchasing new releases because they have crossed my price threshold. But then, I’m not a new release junkie. (OK, I admit to buying the last Harry Potter at the airport on its release date, and finding that the plane was filled with travellers who had also just purchased a copy :). And also not being able to wait for Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol” and asked Santa for it in hardback last Christmas. I spotted a display of it this week in paperback, which would have been too long to wait – well, it’s about a library, isn’t it?….)

This article makes the point that the big profit comes from the current sellers: “You’ve got three months for a book to survive, and then it’s gone.”

I’m not a bookseller, I’m a librarian by trade. In academic libraries, where I spent most of my career, we buy the newest resources (of course), but we also acknowledge that older material has value. This depends entirely upon the discipline: very current material is the focus in the commerce areas; much older material retains its value in the humanities and parts of the social sciences. Weeding is something I’ll discuss another day.

Public and school libraries have to provide a range of material that meets the needs of their users. They must balance subject, genre, level and format within their (always inadequate and currently shrinking) budgets. Many public libraries buy multiple copies of popular printed books and rent them out as an income generating stream. BUT people still want to read older material, for a range of reasons.

Readers are individuals. They have different needs, interests and things they are focusing on, and this is likely to change during different times in their lives.They don’t always want the latest releases of fiction.

So if they do want the latest, they can:

• Buy it from a big retailer such as Borders
• Buy it from a small independent bookseller (such as the wonderful Women’s Bookshop in Auckland)
• Buy it second-hand from a shop or online auction site or second-hand bookseller
• Order it online from a cheaper local supplier (such as Fishpond) or international (such as The Book Depository which offers free international postage, or Amazon)

I buy a lot of reduced price fiction books – often older best sellers, although I will buy current releases for gifts. I buy specific non-fiction titles because I want them for me, or need them for work, preferring to buy them online if I know a specific title, but will browse a topic on the shelves in a bookshop. I will do a big shop a couple of times a year in my favourite independent bookshop (see above) but my lifestyle is such that I don’t pop in regularly to browse.

Where do eBooks fit in?

Many people first encounter eBooks when they are studying, either at school when young, or as adults returning to study, often part-time, often by distance education. Adults in further education do not have a lot of time, and so they use ebooks because they are convenient. How many of them transfer to reading eBooks for personal pleasure and information? I’m sure there is research out there on this topic. It will change – at least their consciousness is raised about the possibility of alternative formats.

You can buy new releases in eBook format. You can buy some older material, and there is lots available from small and independent publishers. You can get a lot of older material for free, whereas you would have to search for second hand copies or pay for print reprints of classics.Your public library probably offers a (perhaps somewhat odd) collection of eBooks (which can be hard to find, browse and use…). No one stop shop, but that will come.

Booksellers are feeling the change. The tightening of spending on discretionary items such as books during the recession has, of course, impacted on this. Use of free resources in  libraries has risen. So if purchasing levels drop, booksellers must raise their prices, and even fewer people buy. The booksellers offer eBook readers such as the Kobo and readers start to think that this might be a cheaper way.

Early adopters are there already. The bulk of the population will be hybrid readers for a long time to come. The long tail will see print books having a long life, and the nostalgia/retro/boutique nature of books will always be there. I foresee cool youths of a future generation eschewing the 2030 version of the iPad and making having a printed book a fashion statement.

Technology choices

I do not need an iPad (repeat several times)… I might want one, but I don’t need one. Yet. Perhaps. Later…

Kindles are not for sale in New Zealand yet, although you can download the software for PC (I have). You can buy a Kobo from Whitcoulls for NZ$295. Do I want a dedicated device? I don’t think so. Let’s see what happens as my Journey unfolds.

For the last 18 months I have been occasionally reading free eBooks on my Samsung touch screen mobile phone, using Wattpad. I have read several Sherlock Holmes books. They are perfect for plain text and light reading – simple short stories, formulaic, familiar characters. More of that eBook reading experience in a later post.

A few months ago I bought a new toy. I purchased a new low end, old stock HP Mini 210 netbook (any colour so long as it is black) running Windows XP, and I am really happy with it. I bought it  to replace my first generation Asus EeePC which served me faithfully during a trip to Europe in 2008. That was just before the netbook explosion. Wherever I used it in public, people wanted to look – in airport departure lounges, it attracted envious stares from a united nations array of business folk, who were trying to do productive work with tiny smartphones or massive 17 inch laptop bricks. They wanted something light and portable. I’m sure they  now have their own toys of choice.

The EeePC was interesting, but I didn’t want to learn Linux, and so couldn’t really do much with it. It was great with wireless networks, but wasn’t compatible with my Telecom mobile broadband T Stick.  I felt mentally and physically cramped by it. Reading .pdf documents wasn’t comfortable due to the screen size and resolution. BUT I could blog and Skype and manage my photos and stumble through email and it was the size and weight of a light  paperback book. Anyone want to buy a slightly used EeePC?

The Netbook is MUCH better!

I’m not ready to live my whole life in the cloud yet, but I’m interested in what’s going on. I’m going to use the netbook to explore it, for now at least.

A few weeks ago I downloaded the Whitcoulls eBook reader for PC – the Kobo software. This is the same as the Borders software. It came preloaded with several free out of print books – Alice in Wonderland, Grimms Fairytales etc. I hadn’t done more than graze. Then, on Sunday at Auckland airport with a few minutes to kill I played with a Kobo at a Whitcoulls store, the first time I have seen one  ‘live’. I was not particularly impressed with the feel of the navigation button, I did not find it intuitive, the screen was too small, the page turn speed far too slow for my reading speed. The screen appearance is, not surprisingly, just like what you see on the PC version of the software. OK, it convinced me that I don’t want to drop $295 on a Kobo.

What do I like about reading on the netbook? The screen resolution is great. Page turning speed is awesome.  The screen size is almost big enough. You can rotate the page, I guess.  I like being able to make notes and use other pieces of software while reading – I’m a multi-tasker. I like being able to use wireless or mobile broadband or use it offline. I like having an almost full-size keyboard. I can have several different reader software packages installed, and can either download books or read them online. I can read  .pdfs, ePub formats etc.

What don’t I like? The screen size really is too small – to be truly comfortable, I think that reading should be in portrait orientation, rather than having long lines that are harder to scan. Of course it’s harder to hold than a print book or a dedicated eBook reader – it works best curled up in a comfortable chair. I’ll revisit this assessment in the future.

Why blog?

This blog was sparked by a range of influences. These include:

• Susan Hill’s  “Howards End is on the landing: A year of reading from home”. I have been dipping into this, reading a chapter here and there, for some time (I think the book requires slow reading), and it has made me reflect on my own relationship with reading;
• a realisation that the concept that “books make excellent insulation” is no excuse to buy more, despite living in an uninsulated house in mid winter;
• the acknowledgement that I will never be able to read all the books I want to read in my lifetime;
• a realisation that many of the books I want to read are ‘classics’;
• a professional interest in the history and future of the book and of people who work and live with books (readers, librarians, booksellers, publishers, authors, illustrators…)
• a fascination with how the book world as we know it is transforming.

I have decided to blog about my journey with eBooks.