Out of Print covers for your e-reader

This is so neat. Right now I have a plain blue cover on my e-reader. But these covers really have some pizzaz. I like the series of "out of print" book covers for e-readers on M-Edge. They feature classic old covers for books like Walden, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Moby Dick, Atlas Shrugged, Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man, and more as well as a lot of old covers from The New Yorker. They create covers for Kindles, Nooks, and iPads. You can also design your own cover, which they'll custom print for you.

An Owed to the Spelling Checker

This week I helped a kid on one of our library PC's, by showing her how to automatically spell check on a paper she was working on for school. She must have been in 3rd grade or so. Her eyes boggled, and she exclaimed, "It's like I'm cheating!" She was hesitant to check the rest of her document, but I assured her that her teacher, and most adults really, use spellcheck all the time. Of course, there are times when the spell checker is of little use... such as the following poem.

An Owed to the Spelling Checker
by Jerrold H. Zar

Eye have a spelling chequer.
It came with my Pea Sea.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.

Eye strike the quays and type a whirred
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am write oar wrong
It tells me straight a weigh.

Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your shore real glad two no.
Its vary polished in its weigh.
My chequer tolled me sew.

A chequer is a bless thing,
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right all stiles of righting,
And aides me when eye rime.

Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The chequer pours o'er every word
Two cheque sum spelling rule.

E-book thoughts

Have you seen this video? It’s for a new Nursery Rhyme Storytelling app for the iPad: 




The interactive touchscreen looks amazing – can we call it a book, a videogame or what? It’s a bit of both. Sad that they show the dad being so far away though… that’s more of a drawback than a perk, to my mind.

Most of the patrons I talk to are expecting the library to provide the same seamless wifi experience that they get when they purchase an e-book. Most of them are very surprised that they can’t download an e-book if it’s “checked out” to someone else. I find myself doing a lot of educating about the fact that before you select your e-books on Overdrive, you need to download Adobe Digital Editions to your computer, then physically plug in your e-reader to your computer to manually transfer titles to your device. There's a free Overdrive app for Mac products, which is helpful, but still not as easy to browse for available titles as I would like.

I spend quite a bit of time encouraging people, because the first time you download a library e-book, it’s a very lengthy set-up process, getting your device “authorized” and so on. Once you’ve got all your accounts set up, and are ready to go, it’s a snap.

I'm hearing that several Barnes & Noble stores have been telling their customers if they have any problems with getting Overdrive books on the Nook, to just go to any nearby library and ask a helpful librarian. Sadly, I think this is a hit-or-miss proposition. Some librarians are excited about new technology and others aren't. I can tell you that the last time I was at Barnes & Noble I was mobbed by customers with questions when I made the mistake of helping a salesclerk download an app. I had to excuse myself amidst angry glares and woeful pleas for more help, with the explanation that I really didn't work there, and I had other errands I had to get to. Will those folks make it into the library? Will they get the help they need to get the books they want? I hope so.

Nook vs. Kindle DX

I recently had the opportunity to try out a Nook (the original, not the full color Nook) and thought I'd give a review of how it compares to the Kindle, which I reviewed last year.

• My first impression on looking at the Nook was that it's quite a bit smaller than the Kindle. I was worried that it might be harder to read on a smaller screen, but I actually found it comfortingly similar to reading a mass market paperback.
• The biggest difference between the Nook and the Kindle DX, of course, is the tiny full color touch screen used for navigation on the Nook. I liked that the keyboard was there when you needed it, and disappeared when you didn't.
• Weight. I've heard quite a few complaints that the weight of the Nook is a little too cumbersome. I actually didn't mind the bottom-heavy Nook, as it gives a nice solid feeling in your hands, without being heavy enough to wear you out.
• The screen of the Nook, with e-ink, was very similar to the Kindle, with maybe just the very barest hint more glare than the Kindle. Just like the Kindle, I found myself stupidly pressing the screen expecting it to do something (I am too used to my iPhone touchscreen) and found myself surprised that you really do need light to read by, since the screen obviously does not glow.
• One option that I really, really missed was the built-in dictionary that Kindle has. No such thing on the Nook.
• The Nook included a couple of games; chess and sudoku. I tried out the chess game and found it tough to navigate the tiny, full-color touch screen, and a little dizzying to keep switching from looking at that screen to the full-size black and white screen where the whole board is displayed. I didn't think the games were really necessary, but I could see myself playing them if I were stuck at an airport and wanted to pass a little time.
• In terms of battery life, I did find the Nook wore out much more quickly than the Kindle did. But, the Nook stood up to a week of heavy reading with wi-fi mostly switched on, which I thought was more than sufficient.
• Page turns seemed just a fraction faster on the Nook. I've heard that this is due to a recent software update. The Kindle DX always hesitates oddly every time you turn the page, making it tricky to finesse when you want to press the page-turn button. The Nook had page-turn buttons smoothly integrated on either side of the screen.
• Happily, the Nook allows you to switch fonts. There aren't very many options, but it's better than not being able to switch fonts at all. I also found, when reading PDF's that the original fonts and formatting were retained, which was nice. The Kindle doesn't use pages - instead, a progress bar shows up at the bottom of the screen, saying, 30% done, or what have you. I liked that the Nook uses page numbers. You can resize the font, which of course, will change the number of pages in the book.
• Is there an option to rotate the screen on the Nook? I couldn't find one. Annoyingly, I could not figure out how to turn the screen rotation OFF on the Kindle. Sometimes, I like to curl up on my side while reading, and the Kindle DX rendered this impossible, as it always wanted to "correct" itself and be read right side up, no matter which way I turned it. With the Nook, I was able to curl up on my side and read without the screen jumping around, trying to rotate itself.
• Just like the Kindle, the Nook makes it blindingly fast and easy to purchase books. Thinking about making a purchase? A click of a button and a few seconds later, the book is yours. It's not hard to go through your personal book budget more quickly than you ever thought possible on this thing.
• The place where the Nook really shines is, of course, in lending e-books. I found it easy and intuitive to transfer e-books checked out from my library to the Nook. With the Kindle, I did figure out how to find out a few free titles, but never did master downloading PDF's. Users who are new to Overdrive (a company which licenses e-books for libraries) may find the set-up process vexing. Expect to spend a good afternoon downloading Adobe Digital Editions, setting up authentication and so on. Obviously, you will also need a valid library card, at a library which has access to Overdrive. And, secondly, good luck finding e-books that are checked in -- demand for these items are soaring at libraries everywhere. In many cases, you have to get on a waiting list for popular titles. Still, the library titles are free, and you can't beat that. 

The Nook currently costs about $10 more than the bare-bones model of the Kindle, but it's hundreds of dollars cheaper than the DX. Despite the smaller screen of the Nook, I think the ease of finding free materials and the intuitively-designed navigation screen makes the Nook a superior choice.

Freight Train app

I've just discovered Curious Puppy, which sells educational iPhone apps based on children's books. Check out the video for Donald Crews' classic Freight Train. They've expanded and extended the original story in such a cool way.  Awesome!

Kindle DX Update

A couple of months ago, I wrote a rather lengthy review of the Kindle DX.  While I'd initially been quite pleased with the e-reader, I was totally dismayed when the screen died on me.  


I've gone over it in my mind a hundred times.  What did I do?  How could the screen failure have been prevented?  I did place a few picture books on top of it once, but I can hardly imagine that the weight of those kids books could have killed it.  By my own admission, I did repeatedly poke at the screen, mostly by instinct, being so used to the touchscreen on my iPhone.  I did leave the Kindle on the floor once, which was pretty cold, so maybe the temperature change did it?  The fact is, I'll never really know why the screen died, but happily, the dead unit has been replaced, free of charge, by Amazon.


In my earlier review, I brought up lots and lots of things I like about the Kindle... and a number of minor quibbles with it, including the following observation:

I noticed that out of all of the famous authors featured on the screensavers, none of them were people of color.  I would have loved it if Langston Hughes, Phyllis Wheatley, or other authors had been featured alongside Oscar Wilde, Emily Dickinson and others.

When my new Kindle arrived, I saw that this point had been addressed.  A new screensaver of Ralph Ellison was the first thing that popped up once it was powered up!  I'm impressed that Amazon so quickly addressed this concern.

My brief love affair with the Kindle DX

This past holiday season, my household was gifted with a new Kindle DX.  While I was dubious at first, the usefulness of the device soon won me over.


Things I liked about the Kindle DX

• I am a voracious reader and frequent traveler.  Having access to dozens of books, a New York Times subscription plus limited web access really put my mind at ease.  I'm constantly afraid of running out of things to read while on a plane, and the Kindle soothed my worries on that score.

• For some reason, I had not realized that e-books are offered at such a steep discount to their paper counterparts.  This made the initial high price of the device much, much easier to stomach, at least for me.  I know that I don't spend enough on books that getting deals for $9.99 will ever cause the Kindle to pay for itself, but I appreciate the gesture on Amazon's part anyway.

• Portability.  Easy to carry, not too large or too small.  I find a number of hand-held products appear to be designed for larger, more ham-handed persons than myself.  This one felt just right.  The full keyboard at the bottom of the screen is small, but perfectly useable.  Miraculously light and pleasant to hold.  I loved sitting on an airplane and being able to read a four-hundred page novel without having a heavy book to lug around.

• Long battery life.  I had been reading from the Kindle for a few hours a day, and did not need to charge it for over a week.  I found the battery life especially satisfactory.  There is an unobtrusive battery life symbol at the upper right-hand corner of the display which I found comforting.  No surprise shut-down while you are in the middle of a sentence.

• I loved the appearance of the black and white e-ink display.  It has a slightly Etch-a-Sketch quality that I found charming.

• The read-aloud voice sounds slightly, but not entirely, like Stephen Hawking, which I enjoyed.

• Finding free books -- those in the public domain -- is a little difficult but not impossible.  I downloaded most of the works of Shakespeare on it for free.

• I liked some of the screensavers, especially the ones that looked like old-timey woodcuts.  I enjoyed the mild sense of cognitive dissonance I got from seeing antique looking art on the high-tech screen.

• The area where I thought the Kindle really shines is with newspaper and magazine subscriptions.  I've always hated reading the newspaper, because of the oversize way that it is formatted.  Each sheet is huge and folding it and re-folding it, or even just holding it up to read, can be a full-contact sport, pretty much ensuring that it is impossible to read the newspaper and multi-task.  I'm probably dating myself here, but before the advent of the internet, I preferred to get my news by reading weekly magazines such as Newsweek or Time, rather than the daily newspaper.  The other thing that I dislike about newspapers (and magazines too) is the way that articles are frequently broken up, so that the valuable real-estate on the front page can be shared among as many stories as possible.  I hate having to hunt for an article that is continued on one of the back pages.  With the advent of cnn.com and latimes.com, I never looked back.  However, I feel the Kindle is an even superior reading experience than getting news online for several reasons.  Reading New York Times or The Wall Street Journal on the Kindle gave me a sense of completeness that you'll never get from the web.  It gave me the sensation of having read the paper "cover to cover" whereas, on the web, the content may have been shifted around and you're never really sure if you got everything.  No more annoying story breaks, or awkward page turns, as you'd find in a print version.  The magazine size of the Kindle was ideal.  Each newspaper article has a "next article" button at the bottom of the page, accessible by the mini-joystick, so you can easily skip through articles you don't want to read.  The menu option on the newspaper allows you to see each "section" of the paper, Opinion, Sports, Local, Entertainment, etc. and read all articles in that section, or choose articles one by one.  Best of all, NO advertising of any sort.  I can't think of any other format that can boast that.  This is my new, number one, preferred way to access the news.

Now for the bad news.


Things I didn't like about the Kindle DX

• Page turns seemed a tad slow to me.  I'm a fast reader, and like to read the final sentence on a page right as I'm turning the page.  It took me a good while to get the knack of pressing the "next page" button at just the right time.  Even then, I felt like I was waiting half a second in-between each page for the new one to load.  It's an odd sort of pause that I wouldn't have while reading a normal book.

• The interface on the home page seems a bit clunky and old-school looking.  That in and of itself wasn't a problem, but it did make finding special features rather difficult.

• The read-aloud feature isn't available on most things.  As I understand it, Amazon had planned to include it for nearly all content, but was blocked by some publishers who didn't want to hurt audiobook sales.

• You have to pay for access to blogs.  Ridiculous!  They're available on the internet for free.

• After fiddling with it for over a week, I still couldn't figure out how to load PDF's on it or sync it with an iPhone.  I'm a pretty tech-saavy person.  I was surprised that this stumped me.

• Having an iPhone, I'm so used to having a touch screen on a hand-held device.  I kept stupidly touching the screen, before remembering that it's not a touch screen.

• Again, being so used to reading things online, even though I knew that the e-ink display was designed to be easier on the eyes, I kept finding myself being surprised by having to turn on a reading light or not be able to read the thing in the dark.

• It took me a little over a week to notice this, but all the fonts are the same.  I'm not such a font-hound that I could name the font the Kindle uses off the top of my head, but it seems like an obscure one.  I kind of missed seeing different typography in different books.

• It seemed to me that the newer the title, the greater the likelihood of spelling errors and strange formatting mistakes such as spaces in the middle of a word.

• Unlike real books, you cannot share titles you've purchased with your friends.

• Annoyingly, I could not figure out how to turn off the screen rotation.  Sometimes, I like to curl up on my side while reading, and the Kindle DX rendered this impossible, as it always wanted to "correct" itself and be read right side up, no matter which way I turned it.

• Maybe I'm overly sensitive to this just now because of the recent brouhaha over whitewashed covers, but I noticed that out of all of the famous authors featured on the screensavers, none of them were people of color.  I would have loved it if Langston Hughes, Phyllis Wheatley, and other authors had been featured alongside Oscar Wilde, Emily Dickinson and others.

• Also!  Once and again, a screensaver would come up that was an ad for Kindle.  Lame, in my opinion.  This kind of advertising goes under the same category as those dancing, wriggling pop-up ads at the bottom of television shows.  Unnecessary and annoying.

• One more thing bothered me -- and this may be silly, I know.  I was concerned that I felt there was anything about the Kindle to criticize, let alone so many.  My internal critic was telling me, "wah, wah, wah, tell me more about your first world problems."  It's such an amazing thing to have so much reading material in such a slim, easy to carry device.  You know those status reports that Captain Picard reads?  It felt like I was reading one of those.  Like I'm living in the future!  So, I was disappointed in myself, that I found so many faults to pick with it.  

Update: As I was writing this review this weekend, the Kindle DX suddenly died.  At first the screen was frozen on the screensaver.  I assumed that it might need charging up.  When I plugged it in overnight, the screen went white.  After rebooting it, the screen was covered in scratchy lines and garbled half-images of the screensaver.  After rebooting it again, I briefly got it to work again, but it quickly pooped out.  I am so disappointed.  I was just starting to fall in love with it, and now, suddenly it's gone.  At the moment I realized the Kindle wasn't working, it suddenly struck me how many hundreds of unread pages lay trapped inside.  How sad!  Even more concerning, I'm worried that Amazon may play hardball and refuse to replace the broken device.  Check out all the one-star ratings for the Kindle DX on the Amazon website and you'll see what I mean.  Apparently this is a not uncommon problem, which they have been very reluctant to address.  Not cool, Amazon.  Not cool at all.


Initial rating: 3 stars.  I took away one for the minor quibbles I had with it, and another for the high price and proprietary manner in which Amazon lets you access materials.
Final rating:  One star.  For being so flimsy (screen died after only a month), for reputed poor customer service and for breaking my heart.