Same book, new screen: Sony PRS-350 review

For Christmas 2009 I received a Sony Reader Pocket Edition (PRS-300) and it changed my view of ebooks, as well as how I read new books. Last month I upgraded to a PRS-350, the newer Pocket Edition, which comes with a nifty stylus and touchscreen so I can edit documents anywhere.

I chose to get another Sony Reader for the same reasons as the first: the non-proprietary format allowing me to load my own books & read ePubs to PDFs, ease of use, size of the device, and generally good experiences with Sony devices since I used my first Walkman in 1980whatever. The Sony Reader Store is still absent from the UK, but I've never had a problem finding the books I want at Waterstones, Smashwords, or WH Smith (so long as they're available in ebook form at all. Oh the frustration when they aren't.)

There are a few new functions on this upgrade. Most important is the touch screen, which means that instead of a line of buttons down the screen there are just a few at the bottom. Most of the space on the device is dedicated to the screen, which is as it should be and means that the thing is smaller while the screen stays the same size. You can also turn pages by flicking the screen, which seems to be something people want to do with these devices so they can be reminded of real books. While I like the touch screen for the ability to highlight passages, look up words in the dictionary and make free-hand notes with the stylus, the page-turning thing doesn't matter to me. And unfortunately the touch screen functions make the "Put it in a zip-loc bag and take it to the bathtub" function sort of wonky. The zip-loc bag tends to turn pages for me, or tries to look up a dictionary definition while I'm not interested. I'd like a way to turn off touch screen functions and use strictly buttons when I want to.

That said, the ability to make free-hand notes is just fantastic. It means I can edit my own stories on the go. I can't edit the files entirely but I can make the same notes I'd make on a printed-out copy, and I can highlight problem passages for later editing. This device is also a lot quicker than its predecessor, and loading books is faster and less buggy. Even turning pages has a bit more zip than before. The menu re-design seems logical but possibly unnecessary. There are a lot of menu choices I'm just never going to use, for example "Unread Periodicals," and no way to get rid of them or see more useful menu items first. I wish they'd let me customize the menus so I don't feel like I have less than full functionality.

Overall it's a good step up from the last pocket reader and I'm glad I chose it. My other possible choice, the Kobo, was the same price but didn't include a touch screen--and in the last week they've released one that does, so my next review might be Kobo versus Sony. (It will never be Amazon versus Sony because I will not buy an ereader as proprietary as a Kindle.)

As for a cover/case, instead of an official Sony thing that works very well but demonstrates little imagination I went for a Tuff-Luv hemp jobbie. It's light, fits well, and when it's closed the reader looks like a hippie's notebook. I adore it.

Anyone else tried the PRS-350?

Pros:

• Touch screen for editing
• Dictionary functions
• Reads all file types from any source
• Device size &/vs screen size
• Loading/page-turning speed

Cons:

• Touch screen interference with a zip-loc bag
• Sony Reader Store unavailable in the UK
• Non-customizable menus

Friday Flash: "Experience"

"Experience"
by Jen Brubacher
I thought it would be like chopping wood, but the human body has so many hidden angles and planes the axe didn’t crack through bone at all but bounced from a flap of skin and slid sideways across the chest, redirected towards the jaw where it painted a thin line, and then settled against the tilted throat without breaking the skin. My shoulders ached with the effort and yet the body was still in one piece. It was going to be some job. I considered again my other option—the chainsaw—but in my mind’s eye saw the shower of cubed flesh through the air and shrugged, pulling the axe up for another try. This time I aimed low, and it buried without remark into the thick flesh of the stomach. Had it hit the spine? Was it severed? I imagined the body split there, the results spewed out in slithering trails of intestine, and I let go of the axe.

“This isn’t going to work,” I said.

“No kidding,” said the body.

“What do you suggest?”

“Um.”

We pondered.

“Fire?” suggested the body.

***
There was plenty to burn that smelled good. Cedar branches and juniper giving a heady, spiced smoke. Half an apple tree that had fallen in a storm, chopped and dragged through the yard to the bonfire. Rosemary clipped from the communal garden, stickying up my hands as I shredded it onto the pile. And then when it was very hot I added the oranges whole, because I didn’t have enough orange peels and I couldn’t eat that much fruit in a few hours. Altogether it was a perfumed inferno. I nestled the body with its face to the fire, flames and shadows licking and obscuring so you couldn’t quite tell if that was an arm or a branch. Never was a pig roast so seasoned and sweet.

My closest neighbour: a fellow with perpetual baseball cap and Cat boots, usually drinking beer with his friends on his porch, raising his bottle in a salute. Of course he had to come over and see what smelled so good.

“Make him go away,” the body whispered.

“Just thought I’d clear the yard a little.” I accepted the extra beer my neighbour offered and washed down salt and ash with cool malt.

“Ayuh,” my neighbour said. “Good time for it.”

We both nodded at the damp leaves weighing on the yard. No chance of wildfire. That was something at least.

“You got, uh,” my neighbour started. He belched into the back of a hand. “You got a permit for this? Because they’re a little paranoid down at the fire hall.”

The body was whispering so quickly now I couldn’t hear what it was saying. It was a static buzz at the back of my head.

“Oh yeah?” I said.

“Ayuh,” my neighbour said.

***
The skeleton was matte black. All the troublesome flesh melted away, including the soft tilted throat, so maybe that was why it was so quiet.

“I’m a little unsure what to do at this point,” I prompted.

There was that hum in my head but I couldn’t hear the words. I leaned close to the skull and noticed that flesh remained deep within the eyes, and soot cracked off the teeth to show a yellow-white grin.

It was an old farmhouse, so the floorboards came up readily, their long nails giving the barest squeal. The body curled around itself in the space and I asked if it was cold. I would have asked anything to get it to speak up. The silence was unnerving.

“I’m a little disappointed in this whole process,” the body finally said.

I was relieved. I pushed a few more blackened sticks and logs down beneath the floor and put the boards back into place. This time the nails made no noise and I stepped on them a few times to make sure they’d hold. It seemed so.

The body said, “This is not what I expected.”

“I understand. I’m new at this. But next time I’ll know better.”

I hoped I sounded reassuring.

From outside, near the bonfire, I heard my neighbour’s body yelling.

---

Photo: Bonfire by Mark Bridge on flickr

Ebooks vs Print: All Online Shopping Experiences Not Created Equal

I understand why booksellers want to mix up their ebooks with their regular books in their online catalogues. It helps get everything out in the public eye, and it doesn't treat ebooks like second-class-citizensbooks. More important than this, probably, is that separated catalogues for ebooks and regular books means more work for the people organizing the website. More work costs money. It's cheaper to mix it together. And anyway, a book is a book.

Except it's not, and I hate catalogues that mix the books together. Here's why.

When I'm shopping online, there's a huge difference between whether I'm expecting to buy & begin reading a book right away, or buy & wait a week for delivery. Huge difference. When I'm specifically looking for one or the other, I don't want to think I've found it only to realize that it's in the wrong format. Boo.



Also, putting ebooks and regular books side by side demonstrates the uselessness of book pricing. Things are getting better now, but until recently the UK was in the dark ages for ebook pricing. While Americans were complaining every time an ebook was more than $9.99, we in the UK were lucky to find an ebook for less than 10 pounds ($20) even when the print book was a few quid (much less.) If I have to live with that, fine, but I don't want it illuminated every time I shop.

The comparison between ebook and print book marketing is similarly ridiculous and should not be illuminated. I could buy this book, advertised here with its beautiful cover which demonstrates not everything but at least generally the genre and target audience and whether I'll be embarrassed to read it on the tube, or I could buy that book--the same book--advertised there with a white box and big fat red question mark as if the publishers weren't just lazy but actually confused about whether it needed to be represented at all. Ooh. Fun. Honestly, if you can't be bothered coming up with a 100x150 icon that represents the book, I don't want the 100x150 blank spot there to show just how useless you are.



Since some retailers haven't figured it out yet, I should note that "ebook" is not a genre. I don't want to choose between Mystery, Science Fiction, and ebook. I want a Mystery ebook. And a Science Fiction ebook. And I want to be able to find them. Please help me find them. So I can buy them. And give you my money.

Yes, they're all books. Yes, the end result is the same: we read them. But no, the shopping experience should not be the same unless we've gone into an Advanced Search and clicked a check-box next to both Print and Electronic formats.

And while I'm asking for an Advanced Search, I'd really like Smashwords' "Sample First X%" option from all major retailers, please. And also maybe a pony. And a plastic rocket.

Thanks.

Edited to say: Comments have led me to clarify my perspective. I'm talking here about big publisher/bookstore sites (eg. Waterstones, WH Smith) that allow a search through thousands of books. For smaller sites with one page dedicated to each publication, say, this kind of segregation is not an issue.

#1 is good, right? Chart rush success!

Tuesday was incredible. From morning to night (and morning to night again as the day unrolled around the world) an enthusiastic group of authors and readers watched as the two charity collections, Nothing But Flowers and 100 Stories for Queensland, slowly gained international notice. As people around the world showed their support for the charities, the authors, and the stories themselves, that support was evident in the Amazon charts. When I logged off Tuesday night 100 Stories was the #3 bestseller of all anthologies on Amazon.co.uk, and Nothing But Flowers was #1 in Fantasy Anthologies, Fantasy Short Stories, and Science Fiction Anthologies. Yesterday at home in Canada, on Amazon.ca, the two collections were at #1 and #2 respectively on the list of bestselling genre fiction anthologies.

Wow.

So the chart rush was an enormous success. A great donation will be going to a great cause. And beyond that, I’m thrilled (and terrified, because I'm a writer, and there's always a little angst) that so many people around the world will soon be reading these stories. I know some of the other authors, and their stories deserve to be read by as many people as possible. I got a little emotional as the afternoon wore on, and decided I’d crack open my own copy of each book. Kate Eltham’s foreword in 100 Stories for Queensland blew me away. Her description of the chaos during the flooding in Australia, and her amazement that something so destructive could inspire such generous creativity, is exactly the message I want every person to see first when their copies arrive in the mail.

If you bought the book(s) yesterday, thank you for your enthusiasm! You have contributed to something amazing. And if you didn’t buy it on the chart rush day, but you’re still interested in buying, that’s terrific. The whole point of the chart rush was to bring the books to the world’s attention, and if you want to buy then that’s a success no matter the day. Thank you again.

Nothing But Flowers & 100 Stories for Queensland: Paperbacks!

This is an exciting day! Nothing But Flowers, the second Literary Mix Tape, and the charity anthology 100 Stories for Queensland are both available worldwide in paperback, and each contains a short story by yours truly.



Nothing But Flowers includes my short story I Dream of Cherry Pies and 24 other stories about love in the time of apocalypse--it's quirky, dark, and full of strange, wonderful ideas. 100 Stories for Queensland is a huge collection of uplifting and often inspiring tales in many genres, including one of my flash pieces: Familiar, that won an honourable mention in the Women on Writing fiction contest last summer. It also contains a story by Ev Bishop (one of my favourite authors) and by bestsellers Sue Moorcroft and Anita Heiss. Both books are great collections of short fiction that are perfectly suited for your commute or a holiday, and they come with added incentive: all proceeds from Nothing But Flowers go to the Grantham Flood Support Fund, and all proceeds from 100 Stories for Queensland go to the Queensland Premier's Flood Appeal. The floods in Australia seem like a long time go for those of us elsewhere in the world, but for the people still rebuilding it's not nearly long enough, so this is a worthy cause.

I'm very excited about this launch. The two stories on offer from me are a couple of my favourite I've written, and they're in great company. And to make the event even more exciting we're trying for a "chart rush": encouraging as many people as possible to buy the books within a 24 hour time period to push it up in the Amazon charts (it's available in the Canada, UK and US Amazon stores.) More on this at Jodi Cleghorn's website (she's the driving force behind both of these collections--Thank you, Jodi!) but all you really need to know is: buy them both today!

So, whether you're interested in short fiction, want to support an excellent cause (the charities) or a different kind of good cause (emerging writers!) today is the perfect day to show it.

---

If you're sick of old fashioned paper books, you can still try each of them as an ebook from their respective sites: Nothing But Flowers and 100 Stories for Queensland.

Librarian abroad

Sorry for my absence, but I'm away from home (and consequently from the keyboard, mostly) on my holidays! In lieu of content, here's an overview of what I'm reading while away. All of these are recommended by me as holiday reads, home reads, commute reads... whatever you like. Just read 'em.

Mystery: Leann Sweeney's The Cat, The Professor and the Poison

This is book 2 of her Cats in Trouble series. Cute story: when I bought the second book the woman in Barnes & Noble said, "Oh no! Are they in a lot of trouble?" I said, "No, it's okay. They're never really in trouble." It was a fine moment. Anyway, a quilt-making widower moves to a small town with her three great cats and ends up Angela Lansburying half the pupulace. Slightly standard cozy mysteries are augmented brilliantly by the cats, who are real cats (not incredible sleuths or talking cats) and both books have been such fun the third is already in my stack to read.



Science Fiction: Robert J. Sawyer's Starplex

Hard sci fi by a master of great ideas. There's something I don't like about most of this author's protagonists--I don't enjoy their relationships with their wives, mainly--but I can't deny that the stories are top shelf. Whatever he's throwing at you, whether it's spaceships and aliens or homegrown time-travel, is so full of well-researched fascinating greatness it's hard not to be impressed. Starplex is an early novel (published 1996) but it has all of the character of some of his later pieces.

Fantasy: Brandon Sanderson's The Final Empire

Apparently this guy is "the natural successor to Robert Jordan" or some such thing. I haven't read Wheel of Time since book 8 took half a decade to appear (or was it book 9?) but this series, The Mistborn Trilogy, was recommended to me for its kick-ass female protagonist. I gave it a shot and was not disappointed. She does kick ass. It's a shame she's the only girl in sight, but the story makes up for a lot: part heist, part save-the-world, with fantasy magic that's been recreated into something unique and compelling. And the characters are wonderful, whatever their genders. I went out and got books 2 and 3 as soon as I'd finished the first.