eReading. A Page Too Far?

Mt. Erebus Antarctica (www.sxc.hu/profile/SailorJohn)

I don’t have an eReader. Well at least I didn’t think I did until ‘Doh!’ I looked at my iPhone and realised I could get iBooks on it. (I’m not always the sharpest tool in the box.)

Again, being a bit tight-fisted (so I didn’t bother to look) it took me a while to realise that some of the titles on iBooks are FREE (I told you I’m not always the sharpest tool etc., etc.)

So the other night I was having a browse (I just typed ‘Free’ into the search box) and a whole lot of stuff came up which was zero priced. 1200 in fact.

“This is great!” I thought and it was but some of it is of dubious interest or quality. But then what would you expect for free?

“The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci?” Well actually that is free.

Works from ‘The Bondage Ministry’ (don’t ask.)

“Short Erotic Tales”, not well reviewed at all.

“The Objective-C Programming Language”, quite niche I think.

Funnily, “How to find and download free ebooks” was priced at 99p.

I’ll tell you what I went for and no, it wasn’t “Sexy Teenage Vampires.”

It was “Scott’s Last Expedition Vol. 1” & “South!” by Sir Ernest Shackleton.

I’ve been intrigued by these stories in the past but with the recent programmes on the BBC my interest was renewed.

So I was considering heading over to Amazon and buying a copy but when I got there Shackleton’s book was free on it’s kindle system. But as I don’t have a kindle I thought I’d look on my iPhone and … well you know the rest.

So I’m going to have a go with these ebooks and see how it goes. An iPhone is a great gadget but will I be able to read a whole book on it?

Honestly, I dunno. I like the idea of a physical book and all that goes with it. Physical page turning, physical bookmarks etc., I always reckoned that I would miss that.

But I guess holding the phone or perching it on the table can be physical enough.

And I suppose I could always drop some physical coffee on it as well.