The Dangers of Owning an E-Reader

I think I did something bad today. Nothing serious, or expensive, but something that sets a bad precedent. To explain, we’ll need to go back though…

The High Cost of Reading

Back in March I was looking for something to listen to in the background while I worked on this or played certain types of games. I had recently given in and listened to the Serial podcast. I though it sounded it dull, but I was desperate, and then I devoured it in only a couple of days. So I went looking for more podcasts, ones with a bigger back log of episodes, but I had no luck until I hit on the idea of Googling something like ‘science fiction fantasy podcast’, and found the Sword & Laser.

I was in it for the podcast, but Sword & Laser actually started out as an on-line book club. Each month they pick a book that they discuss in their Goodreads group and on the podcast. Listening to the back episodes I found myself interested in a number of the books they had read, but I wasn’t really intending to read along with them each month.

For April though they picked Wyrd Sisters, a book by my favouritest author ever that I already had and wanted to reread. In May it was an out-of-print pulp novel from Leigh Brackett, the woman who wrote the first draft of The Empire Strikes Back. Interesting, but I couldn’t find it in the used book store I frequent. June on the other hand was City of Stairs, a fascinating sounding story of a pseudo-Victorian world where they had killed the gods.

So I set off for the local Chapters to get it, and maybe some of the other titles I’d heard of through the cast. Turns out most of them are ‘trade paperbacks’, oversized and overpriced. I might splurge on one book for something I was sure I’d like, but not several by authors I wasn’t familiar with. I left empty-handed and frustrated.

Kobo To The Rescue

I decided it was finally time to enter the future and get myself an e-reader. I wanted a Kobo, as they were Canadian[1], took Chapters gift cards, and seemed to have less draconian DRM[2] than Amazon’s Kindle. After some more frustration, I borrowed then bought one.

Bought is a strong word here. I got it from a friend for the price of a one-sixth share of a not terribly good take-out pizza a month and a half later. She tried to give it to me for free, but I was able to negotiate my way up to something less than ten dollars Canadian. It’s a Kobo Touch, but I don’t really know much beyond that. It seems to be at least a couple of years old, and it has wireless capability that eats battery life quickly.

I read a few things on it, including City of Stairs, and I liked it much more than I expected to. It’s really not that different from an actual book once you get used to it, plus it saves at least a little money with most purchases, and there no question of something being in stock. I miss the feel and smell of real paper, and even more the nice cover-art of some fantasy novels. It shows the covers, but it’s pixely black and white. After that I had to go back and finish off the real books I still had on my shelf before making any serious purchases. I’d let myself read new Sword & Laser picks and Hugh Howey’s serial Silo trilogy,[3] but that was it, until I finished what I had.

Buy A Book, Anytime, Anywhere (With Wireless)

One of the science fiction books I really wanted to read was Andy Weir’s The Martian. It was going to be one of the first things I bought for the Kobo once I finished my backlog. It came up on the podcast again this week though, as they were discussing if the trailers for the movie coming in October had critical spoilers.

So I decided I would move it up the queue and read it soon. It still had to wait for the next science-fiction slot in my reading order.[4]

Thursday evening, sitting at the kitchen counter while waiting for my supper to cook, I pulled up the first part of Hugh Howey’s Shift, second in the trilogy. I was already a couple of chapters into it, but I had just finished Wool the week before, and I really wanted to read The Martian before even seeing too much of the television commercials for it.

So I turned on the wireless… found it in the Kobo store… and bought it. I impulse bought a book while waiting for noodles to boil, without anyone around me even being aware. Really though, so what? I was going to get it in a week or so anyway. It’s not as if I regret the purchase even now. I’m 58% through, and it’s awesome.[5] Still, the ability to impulse buy a book any time, any where, is dangerous.

The Daily Deal Temptation

Ever since setting up my Kobo account I’ve been diligently checking the sales and daily deals on their site. There have been a couple of moderate temptations, but I had never given in to any of them before. I would have if something I planned to get anyway came up, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Today one of the daily deals was Throne of Glass, by Sarah J Maas. I had seen the author’s name come up in a few places, but I hadn’t really looked into her work, and had never heard of this book. It had catchy cover art[6] and was only 99 cents. I did some research on it anyway, as anything sci-fi or fantasy related popping up as a deal was rare.

An 18 year-old assassin girl imprisoned in a salt mine being given a chance to get out by working for the kingdom she hates. There’s some potential there, and the average review score on Goodreads is above four stars. Looking deeper at the individual reviews though, there’s talk of love triangles, much attention paid to dresses, and how she’s oh so great and pretty. It’s a young adult book supposedly, not that there’s anything wrong with that, [7] but it doesn’t really sound like my kind of thing after all.

An hour or two later though… the wi-fi comes on, and it’s mine. It’s only 99 cents after all.

So that was my mistake today. I impulse bought a book that is aimed at teenage girls. Let’s hope it really is more Hunger Games than Twilight.