gossip girl community & possibly buying an ereader

[chibichan]

Hello, guys! I'm not feeling too well today, so I decided not to go to my lectures (I only had two hours of lectures anyway) and instead write an entry here.

First of all: if you like Gossip Girl, please consider joining gossip_girl! I offered to help bring the community back to life and I became the new admin! So now I'm promoting the community as much as I can, so that more people can join. Right now there's a friending meme going on, so everyone can get to know each other. I have many plans for this community and I really hope it becomes the "hub" for Gossip Girl fans on Dreamwidth. So, if you're a fan, please do join! :D

Now, onto other matters. As far as real life goes, everything is okay. Andrew was here from Monday until Wednesday and now he's back home. It was really nice to have him here and to be able to spend time together, just the two of us. ♥ We watched Scrubs, had a marathon of How I Met Your Mother (I want to watch the whole show and Andrew doesn't mind watching it with me. Now we're almost finished watching season 1), went around town - the usual stuff. We found an amazing shop which sells second-hand games/movies/tv series/etc. which has stuff at incredibly cheap prices! It has become our new favourite shop in town! I bought a game, Folklore, for the PS3, for just £12! It looks really good though, I can't wait to try it! Andrew has also bought me the Mummy trilogy (all three movies for just £5), which are my guilty pleasure movies. XD He has never seen any of the Mummy movies, so I'll make him watch all three when I go back to his house.

On another note, I've been thinking of buying an eReader for a while. For the past years, I've been having difficulties when reading books. I started at least 5-6 books between the end of last year and this year and I've finished maybe two of them (both which were ebooks on my phone).

It seems that finishing books - or even starting books, for that matter - has become difficult for me. I have a whole list of books that I want to read, but I can't seem to bring myself to actually start them. For example, some friends of mine (Andrew included) would like me to start reading A Song of Ice and Fire (whose TV adaptation is Game of Thrones), but every time I look at the size of those books, I just think, 'There's no way I'm going to ever finish that'. And I don't read them. Same thing with His Dark Materials - I've been wanting to read those books for years now, but every time I look at the size of the books in a bookshop, I'm like, 'Yeeeeeeeeeeah... next time, maybe' and I never start them.

It's getting frustrating now. I get put off reading books by the size of books - basically, by books themselves. It's strange, but it is happening to me and I don't know how to get over it. Maybe I should just stop thinking and read, or maybe I should buy an ebook reader, like some of my friends have suggested.

With an ereader, I don't see the book. I can't look at its size - I can only look at one page at a time. Which is great, because a) I wouldn't get scared or put off by the size of the book, given that I can't see it; and b) I would just immerse myself in the story, without focusing on how much of the book I've got left and how fast I can read it. It would actually make me read and it would make it hard to focus on the actual size of the book.

There are other advantages to having an ereader - I could read all the classic books for free, without having to buy them; I could carry with me a handful of books when I'm travelling back home and decide which one I'm in the mood for later; I could also put manga scanlations on an ereader and read them like I would read a normal manga (the screen of an ereader is basically the same size as the page of a tankobon), instead of having to look at a computer screen.

So it would seem that buying an ereader would be pretty awesome. However, I fear I'd come across as shallow for buying one. I'm afraid people will laugh at my 'I get scared of the sizes of books' problem, and because I can probably afford to buy an ereader, I'm afraid people will think I'm shallow for buying something expensive instead of just buying paper books. As you can see, it has mostly to do with what other people will think of me - I've saved enough money to buy an ereader, so I personally don't have any problems for buying one. I'm just afraid of people judging me...

So yeah, should I buy one or not? I thought I would ask your opinions on this, guys, before I bought one. Right now I'm eyeing the Kobo glo, which is coming out here in the UK on Monday, October 1st.

And that's all for this entry. I'm going to get something to eat now. :D Until next time!

Comments

[wehappyfew]

I can't speak for all eReaders, but the Kindle shows you how far you are in the book in percentage at the bottom of the screen. It's not quite like seeing the size of a book, but it still shows you how far you've gone/have yet to go.

As for which one to buy: I'd suggest just going with something that doesn't require you to buy from one store, like the Nook. I don't know exactly what their prices are like, but since it's B&N and they don't do as many deals/cheaper prices as other places (like Amazong), I'd imagine they tend to be more expensive. Plus, Amazon's just easier to shop with, imo. (Not that I have any idea what either is like in the UK, but it's something to consider.) I also really don't like the backlit stuff even though it means you need one of those handy dandy portable, clip-on reading lights, but backlit means it'll hurt your eyes more. Like reading a computer screen.

I was really hesitant to get an eReader because I thought that it would end up killing my desire to buy new books, but it really hasn't. Not that I've been buying a lot of books lately, but with the Kindle, it's easier for me to get cheaper (sometimes even free) books on it that I'm sort of unsure about. Like they look somewhat interesting but they're not like BUY ME RIGHT NOW AND READ ME AS SOON AS YOU LEAVE THE STORE, you know? Plus it's super portable. And the charge, on the Kindle at least, lasts for up to a month.

[chibichan]

For some reason, I don't mind that option on ereaders. I actually like looking at how far into the book I am in terms of percentage. In the ereader that I want to buy, the Kobo, it will show you the percentage only if you want to see it. As for the pages, it will tell you at what page you're at for every chapter (like this: chapter x - page 14 out of 20), which I don't mind, because it can help me decide if I want to finish a chapter at the time I'm reading or finish it later if I don't have time. I might get scared if it showed me the total number of pages in the whole book (i.e. page 10 out of 800), which it doesn't seem to do, thankfully. I think, as long as I'm not seeing the actual physical size of the book, nothing will bother me too much.

The Nook is not available here, unfortunately, and the Kobo is actually a bit more popular in the UK than it is in the States, so I was considering buying that one for that reason. Kobo also uses the epub format, which does not bind you to their website to buy books - you can use the internet browser on the ereader and just download any epub book from anywhere. I was always reluctant to buy the Kindle because I don't like to be bound to one store for books.

I agree, back-lit can hurt your eyes after a while (hence why putting manga scanlations on ereader is very tempting, instead of reading them from the computer screen). I've read ebooks from my phone, and I've managed to finish a couple of them, but what really prevents me to read ebooks full-time on my phone is a) the back-lit screen, and b) the small size of the screen. They make it quite uncomfortable to read after a while, that's why I'm considering buying an ereader - it will have a bigger size screen and it will be like reading a normal book. From what I've read, though, the Kobo glo is front-lit, which means it will not hurt my eyes. And even if it does, I can just turn the light of the Kobo off and turn the light of my room on and it will be like having an ereader that doesn't have a built-in light. (I've also looked into the Kindle paperwhite and it does not seem to have an option to turn the in-built light off. It's also not available in the UK, so I can't really get it.)

That's awesome to hear! If there's a feature I love about ereaders and ebooks, is that you can download a preview of a book and decide if you want to buy it or not wherever you are, instead of looking at a book for ages in a store and having to read a bit of the book while standing up and decide immediately whether you should buy it or not. The portability factor is also a huge advantage, especially when travelling. The Kobo's battery should also last up to a month. Also, the Kobo store has a ton of free books (mostly classics, but not all), which for me is a double win, because sometimes I look at the price of a book and I get put off by it if it's expensive (to be fair, though, I get put off by anything that is expensive, haha).

Thanks for your comment! I feel better about buying an ereader now. :)

[yelena_zaltana]

Mannaggia!Spero che questi malori passino presto,devono essere davvero fastidiosi!=( Menomale che la lezione di oggi era solo di due ore e non hai perso molto! Guarisci presto,Chibi!! *hugs*

Mi aggiungo volentieri alla community di GG ma temo di non poter fare il frieding Meme...ancora non riesco a scrivere su DW...=/ Mi spiacerebbe aggiungere persone e poi non essere mai presente su DW...però se hai bisogno di una mano per far rivivere quella community in un altro modo sarò più che lieta di aiutarti!!!=D

Wow!E ci credo che è diventato il tuo negozio preferito!!!!*___*
Poi mi diresti com'è questo gioco,"Folklore"? Ora mi hai incuriosito!XD

Urgh!Il tuo post mi ha fatto ricordare che anch'io devo vedermi "How I meet your mother"!!!Ci riuscirò prima o poi!XD

Mi piacerebbe aiutarti sull'eReaders (che poi è un eBook?) ma non so niente in materia...mi spiace!=/

[chibichan]

*hugs back* Lo spero presto anch'io!

Oh, non preoccuparti per il friending meme! Grazie per esserti aggiunta alla community! ♥ Forse non potrai partecipare alle discussioni sugli ultimi episodi di GG, però spero che troverai qualcosa che ti interessi e che ti piacerà lo stesso! :D (Ho messo anche una regola apposita per gli spoilers, quindi non dovresti avere problemi con quelli!)

Ahaha, sicuro, ti farò sapere! XD

Ci sono troppi telefilm da vedere! Io sto recuperando adesso, ma ho una lista di telefilm che devo recuperare, tra cui Doctor Who, Supernatural e Legend of the Seeker! Spero di farcela! XD;

Non preoccuparti, non fa niente! =D Un eReader è diverso da un eBook - l'eBook è un "libro digitale", mentre l'eReader è quello che permette di leggere diversi eBooks. Anch'io all'inizio ero confusa, poi ho letto in giro e ora ho capito come funzionano! XD

[yelena_zaltana]

*incrocia le dita*

Appena ho un attimo di tempo me la guardo tutta per bene,magari mi concentro sui post con le icone che mi piacciono tanto!=D

Ok,hai appena nominato 3 dei miei telefilm preferiti...appena (senza fretta,eh!XD) li vedi dimmelo che fangirliamo!!!*3* ♥

Grazie dell'informazione!Mi devo mettere al pari coi tempi,mi sento un pò indietro a non sapere certe cose!XD

[gumiho]

I didn't realize there was a comm for GG. I joined and good luck with reviving it ♥ :D

I don't have an ereader. I'm more of a paper book person. Partly because I like the feel of books and partly because I've tried reading ebooks before and the lighting didn't agree with my eyes. With that said, if buying one would make reading more enjoyable then go for it. I can't speak for everyone but I wouldn't judge you for having one.

[chibichan]

Thank you so much! ♥ I really hope it grows and that members make it more active! :D

Aw, that's too bad. Were you trying to read ebooks on an ereader or on another back-lit device? Sometimes, when I read on my phone, it hurts my eyes and I can't read, but generally ereaders should not strain the eyes. But thanks for your comment! Sometimes I think I should stop worrying about what other might think of me and just enjoy life.

[gumiho]

When I get my laptop back I'll try and make something just to post there XD

My mom's tablet. I'm not sure what kind it is, but I know it's not really meant for reading books like an ereader is, and my eyesight is not the best when reading also so that was probably the problem.

Yeah C: I understand though, I'm sometimes I guess 'apprehensive' about doing some things I think others might judge me for, but it is way more fun to just do what you want :'P