Sony Reader

Something to whet the appetite today, in a to-be-continued review…

I almost deleted the email which had the subject line ‘Sony Reader opportunity’, thinking it was one in the endless line of spam emails which purport to come from every bank or company under the sun. This one, however, was genuine – the very charming Huw was offering me a Sony Reader, gratis, as Stuck-in-a-Book had come up when they were thinking of bookish people to spread the word.

Cue crisis of conscience. ‘Dear Huw’ (quoth I) ‘I would very much like to try out a Sony Reader… but… I should warn you, I’ve not always been warmly in their favour on my blog.’ In fact, I was even more honest than that. Nothing daunted, Huw wrote back saying I could still have one – after all, it would be even more of a triumph if I was won over.

The Sony Reader has been put to the Thomas Twin Test. That is to say, while The Carbon Copy was at home for a long weekend, I asked him to try out the eReader. I’ve also tried it. Tomorrow you get my report – his will follow in a day or two. I should let you know the stats, I suppose. (What does one ‘know’ about horses before races? If I knew the correct word, I’d use it.)

Stuck-in-a-Book a.k.a Simon: Obsessively bookish; slight suspicion of technology; has been known to break an internet cable by plugging it upside down.

The Carbon Copy a.k.a. Colin: Not quite so bookish – it’s in there somewhere, but books have been supplanted by the newspaper of late; rather more capable with technology, but no more than the average 22 year old male.

So you see, we cover different bases. Both like reading; both willing to give the Sony Reader a fair go. What were we reading:

Stuck-in-a-Book: Huw said I could choose something from the list of books available to read on the Sony Reader. I toyed with The Daisy Chain by Charlotte Yonge, but my conscience once more got the better of me, and I chose something from my reading list – Kim by Rudyard Kipling.

The Carbon Copy: I daresay he’ll tell us about his choosing procedure in due course, but the one he ended up with was Hamlet by Shakespeare, fondly known around here as Billybob (remember this?)

Ok. We’re in our starting positions… more tomorrow, when you find out how I got along with the Sony Reader.