The (new) Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[ironymaiden]

[xkcd about how the free cellular data of ye olde kindle got you wikipedia and wikitravel access anywhere*] this is why my kindle had a sticker on the back that said "Don't Panic" in large friendly letters.

i adore reading on an e-ink reader. the older i get, the more i appreciate the light weight and the ability to adjust the text size and illumination depending on how my eyes feel. (it has to be e-ink, backlit screens hurt my eyes when i'm tired and i always respond to them as blue light no matter what color shift is engaged.) more importantly, it protects me from running out of book. i say this as someone who used to find an English-language bookstore in each city i visited in Europe in order to trade in the book i had just finished for a new one. i don't actually buy many books from Amazon (mostly library, Project Gutenberg, and Ao3) but i like their hardware.

Friday night i stepped on Dawn Treader (my beloved kindle voyage). i was bummed - it had tactile (if not clicky) buttons and could fit in a large pocket, and while the battery did lose a step it wasn't so much that i ever got around to installing the replacement i had ordered after reading too much while camping in 2021. it was from 2015, so a pretty good run for electronics these days. after being cronched it still woke up and slept and you could turn pages with the buttons and read on it, but the touchscreen was broken so there was no way to get to the library or settings. (wish my first one had lived longer, it didn't need no stinking touchscreen.) ifixit was out of screen replacements (and the instructions kind of sucked), so i went ahead and did a trade-in.

they make it cheaper to buy a new one with trade-in than to buy a refurb (my first choice with most electronics). a new Oasis (clicky buttons) - comes with same day delivery here in the mothership, so i was reading on it before the day was over on Saturday.

i'm still getting used to the form factor - the reading area is off-center so that you have a grip with clicky buttons; the screen part is ridiculously thin with all the guts in the thicker grip. the page turn buttons are swapped from how i had them on Dawn Treader; i still occasionally click the wrong one to turn the page. i could change this in settings but the default is a more natural spot for my thumb to rest, i'll get used to it. the screen rotates, so you can hold in either hand, but the sleep button is on the top of the grip side if you're holding it in your right hand. its location when you read from the left (on the bottom) makes locking the screen one-handed awkward. not optimal for, say, standing on the bus. apparently i hold with my off hand much more than i realized. Desert Rose** is waterproof, optimal for reading in the bath, which i do a lot. no more ziploc bags*** for me!

today i ran down to Whole Foods to drop off Dawn Treader to complete the trade-in. i hadn't done that before - there's a little room with returns and pickup, you bring in the thing and a barcode and they take care of everything. the person behind the counter was deaf - he had a sign with instructions on how to signal him what you were there for, and then we did a combination of pointing at options on the computer screen and pantomime. worked great, it was kind of fun.

now i just need my new "Don't Panic" sticker to arrive.





*while the days of "free" data are gone, the Kindle does remain the web-enabled device I own with the longest battery life, so still an excellent emergency resource
**C discouraged me from calling it Wonderwall
***not entirely true, i still prefer the iPad for comics, but now i only need to keep a gallon bag in the bathroom instead of a gallon and a quart

Comments

[annofowlshire]

I remember when I was younger and I would pack 10 paperbacks to take with me on a week-long trip. It took up half my luggage! I love reading on my Kindle so much (same reasons you mentioned) that sometimes I discover paper books of the Mr's on our many bookcases that look interesting and see if the library has them in Kindle format... sigelphoenix gave all of her bridal party Kindle Paperwhites as gifts (which I guess says a lot about us) in 2015, and it's still my constant companion.

[phosfate]

I used to get shit for packing so many books, but if you miss a connection and are trapped in blizzardy O'Hare forever, WHO'S LAUGHING NOW, BUCKO?

It's still a good idea to keep at least one book in your carry-on in case you can't recharge.

[ironymaiden]

Exactly! I only have to carry one backup book instead four

[phosfate]

I brought like five novels to Disney World, because I had absolutely no idea whether I'd enjoy it but figured the worst possible outcome was getting to sit in an air-conditioned room and read for a week. (I enjoyed it.) When we unpacked I piled them all on my bit of the bedside table and everybody kind of stared at me.

[ivy]

Also my travel plan (and a faithful recounting of my childhood travel tendencies, haha).

[dorchadas]

It wouldn't be Chicago without serious weather delays!, I say, as I stare out my window at all the blowing snow.

When my family took trips when I was younger, I'd pack an entire box of books and then check out more when we arrived at my grandparents' house. Having an iPad certainly cuts down on the weight of the books I bring with me everywhere (and I can use the accessibility hack to turn the light down low enough that even reading it in bed I'll still get sleepy).

I still think about getting a Kindle sometimes, though. It'd certainly be more lightweight.

[phosfate]

Lucky you! You're getting the storm we had yesterday.

Kindles are great because you can pick your font size, they hold tons and tons of books, and the big tablets are great for manga and comics. (Japan has a specialized manga Kindle that I covet but it only works in Japan.) They're also terrific for downloading stuff off AO3. You can also read your Kindle library on your phone.

Kindles suck because the non-book internet apps tend to stop working without notice, so right now my email only displays the first 25 messages, and I can't access my GDrive even though there's a GDrive app. There is also a size limit for PDFs, and if a non-Amazon file (e.g. the manga files from Humble Bundle) is too big you can't mail it to your account -- it gets loaded onto your...GDrive. You also have to keep them charged, which is easier than it was a few years ago, but there will always be the risk of running out of power halfway home or forgetting to charge before you leave. But right now the farthest I travel is the 48th Steet McDonalds, so it's not a problem.

So, they're great and they suck, like pretty much everything. XD

[conuly]

Our parents sent us overseas for the summer, and we'd bring an entire suitcase full of just books, in addition to our carryons which were also just books.

I've taken a look at some photos from those days, and I sometimes wonder if it would not have been ultimately cheaper for our grandparents to just pop into England and do some shopping.

[coffeedaiv]

What is your preferred source for Don't Panic stickers?
I find my iPad perfect as an e reader, though I haven't taken it on any kind of long trips / camping.
I have too many books in Nook format to ever give them up. Though there are more than a couple I bought in dead tree format as well (Bujolds Pen and Desdemona series of novellas, for a start).

[ironymaiden]

The original came from the bookstore on Bainbridge. I think the new one is from teepublic? I'll report back on quality when it arrives

[phosfate]

There are loads of sewing patterns online for DON'T PANIC Kindle covers, but I'd rather buy a sturdier one and sticker it up since I'm really, really good at destroying things in my backpack. Also making the cover look truly deranged is a good way to get people to leave you alone when you read in public.

There are folks on ebay who buy used Kindles from airport auctions (people leave them on the plane and either don't bother to track them down or they can't be reunited with their owners), so sometimes you can score a cheap used one on ebay, but it will be full of the previous owner's porn (bug? feature? you decide!).

[ivy]

I still haven't made a jump to one with buttons; I have a first-gen Paperwhite for similar e-ink doesn't give me headaches reasons. Did you have one that was mostly swipe before switching to one with buttons? If so, I'm interested in your experience with both. Off-center reading area seems like it would throw me off.

[ironymaiden]

Sorry, my original was a third gen with a full keyboard and page turn buttons, no touchscreen. I got the voyage specifically to avoid swiping to turn pages

[yourlibrarian]

wish my first one had lived longer, it didn't need no stinking touchscreen

While I do find the touchscreen useful for both page turning and dictionary lookups, your comment seconds my love of our household's Sony eReaders because they still have buttons for when the touchscreen stalls! They too are e-Ink, completely agree about both visibility and lightweight reading.

I would have a hard time adjusting to a new one as well as our readers are now about 13 years old so I've spent a long time developing habits.