Feb 22
Well, I slept on the decision for one night, but in the end there was probably no other possible outcome. I went down to the Sony Style store at Caesar’s and surrendered the remainder of my willpower along with a hefty sum of digital cash. I initially refused the optional 2-year replacement plan – my person naturally resistant to any such ‘deals’, declining the offer on reflex rather than reason. An hour later I returned to the store and paid the additional forty dollars. For two dollars a month over the next two years I will have the security, nay, piece of mind that should anything happen to my precious new Reader I can simply turn over the broken unit in exchange for another, not broken unit. Given the amount of use I expect to put into the device, as well as its presumably delicate sensibilities, two dollars per month is more than reasonable.
I ran into a crapload of problems (crapload being the appropriately technical term) getting my ebooks transferred to the device, though I suspect that had more to do with my crappy router and cable modem than the service itself. Eventually I got it all sorted out – the solution being of the depressingly mysterious “suddenly everything worked” variety. I bought myself two books – Inside Delta Force and The Anatomy of Motive – both at a significant discount over their hardcopy retail price. The unit came preloaded with a few books, but the only one I kept was George Orwell’s 1984. It would have been much more hilarious if they had preloaded Fahrenheit 451.
.:Update:.
This is way more addicting than I would have thought. My infant library is now up to twelve “books”. I managed to get my own little Elephants formatted and uploaded (it is surprisingly satisfying to see my own name under the Author field with the likes of George Orwell and William Shakespeare – with an acceptable level of humility, of course). Via Project Gutenberg I also uploaded the complete dramatic works of Shakespeare – comedies, tragedies, and histories – in one easy to navigate collection. I don’t currently have any burning desire to re-read Hamlet for the twentieth time, but it is nice to know that I could. So far the only encountered downside is that I have linked my credit card to the Sony Connect store. Transactions can now be completed in their entirety with only two clicks of my mouse. I have a feeling that the continuous flood of painless five dollar purchases will eventually add up.
