Booking Through Thursday

With the advent and growing popularity of ebooks, I'm seeing more and more articles about how much "better" they can be because they have the option to be interactive..videos, music, glossaries..all sorts of little extra goodies to help "enhance" your reading experience, rather like listening to the directors commentary on a DVD of your favorite movie.  How do you feel about that possibility?  Does it excite you in a cutting edge kind of way? Or does it chill you to the bone because that is not what reading is all about?

I purchased a first generation Nook to help relieve my ever-bulging bookshelves because I cannot, apparently, do anything about my insane book shopping habits and library real estate in this house is at a premium.  My thought process was that if I bought an ebook and really, really liked it, I would purchase a hard copy (on sale or used) for my library.  This has generally worked for me except I am drawn like a moth to the candle to the sale tables at B&N and there just doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it.  At least they are on sale.  Whatever.  I digress.  In any event, I have never used any of the "extras" on the Nook except the word look up -- twice.  I have never listened to music on it, played games on it and the web browser is more trouble than it is worth.

I also purchased a Nook Color to use as a tablet -- definitely not a reader because it doesn't have e-ink pages and it is like reading a computer screen and for those of us who like to read for hours on end -- that isn't really good.  I have tried to read on it and ended up with a dreadful headache and so much eye strain I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head.  It is good for "Angry Birds" however.

The new Simple Reader from Nook is, in my opinion, a great option for those who just want an e-reader to-----read! It is smaller, quite light weight and of a size that can be held easily or carried in a purse or bag without adding unnecessary weight.  The battery life is improved as well.  In this format, I just see the e-reader as another book -- a collection of books so to speak.

Does the idea of e-readers "chill me to the bone"?  No, of course not because everybody's reading experience is different.  I do, however,  think of reading as an escape from a hectic, electronically charged world and while it sounds redundant to use an e-reader to escape our hectic world, I think that if it is used without all the added goodies, it is no different than a book except that you aren't going to have to buy more bookcases.