One year with my e-reader
A year ago I set off on my longest vacation ever. Leading up to it, I knew I would be spending a lot of time in transit, and I wanted to prepare myself for that.
Besides music and podcasts, my main source of entertainment is books. Up until this point, I was the person who went to the university library to find niche books that my city's public library didn't have and lug five of them home at a time. This brought me immense joy; I always brought a book to accompany me on walks, visits to the park, public transportation... pretty much any occasion.
This was the case for trips, too. I remember going to a work conference a couple years ago and cursing myself on the way to the airport when i realized I forgot to bring a book. But I did the same when I went on two-week vacations and couldn't resist bringing a huge book to entertain me that would undoubtedly take up too much room in the single bag I brought. Maybe I'd even bring two books. For variety.
This time I had had enough. Despite my love for print books, I knew I wouldn't be happy hauling an extra few pounds' worth of literature in my bag.
So, I took a chance on an e-reader.
I actually had never tried one before. I didn't care if I would ultimately prefer print books; I simply accepted it as the most practical solution for my use case. Some sacrifices are worth making, after all.
Before really plunging myself into the world of e-readers, I knew I didn't want a Kindle. I avoid Amazon whenever I can and didn't like how restrictive it seemed. Upon further research, I landed on the Pocketbook Verse Pro. Ironically, given how difficult it is to find a Pocketbook retailer in the US, I had to order it from Amazon. It came from Spain. To my surprise, I received one that is a pretty red color. I also ordered a basic leather case that lets me prop up the e-reader on a surface or read one-handed. Despite how tiny my hands are, the setup immediately felt just right.
And so I became hooked immediately. Since my purchase, I've had zero issues with the device. The number of file types the Pocketbook supports is amazing, and now I can read books that have been on my to-read list for ages but whose print versions I could never find.
I love how I can seamlessly transfer new books to my Pocketbook via email. It's also easy to track my reading progress. And even though I haven't customized it a lot since downloading it, KOReader customizes my reading experience and even makes the worst PDFs look not too terrible. I love being able to save passages I like and return to my highlights later. I have also downloaded a Russian-English dictionary that makes reading in Russian a lot more accessible and fun than it would be otherwise.
I never expected to confess this, but I haven't read a print book since the day before I got my Pocketbook. It just makes my life so much better. As expected, it was my favorite companion on that three-week trip I took. I downloaded books that covered each country I visited, and it was so nice to not have to bring physical copies of them.
I look forward to taking my Pocketbook with me to even more new places, already only a couple months from now.
