Skip to main content

The Future Is Here

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
- Arthur C Clarke
Sometimes it’s even better than magic. Even Harry Potter had to lug books around in a bag at Hogwarts. But not me. I got myself the Nook. In a gadget the size and weight of a single paperback novel, I can now carry at least 200 books! Many a time what we wish for and what science gives us, turn out to be poles apart. 10 years ago I never wished for a pocket sized phone which lets me access the internet whenever/wherever, yet that’s precisely what I got. Similarly, Asimov’s robots & the robots we now have are poles apart. It’s very rare that you get exactly what you wished for.

But the latest crop of ereaders including my Nook is the stuff every bookworm imagehas dreamed of. When I was a kid, I used to have to go to the library practically every day to have enough reading material on hand. I dreamed of the day when science would invent something which could hold more books than I can read! Fast forward 15 years and tech has answered my prayers. 

Anyone who’s been following the ereader market knows the advantages of having one by now. Excellent battery life, E Ink, form factor etc. And many have wondered if we really need yet another device to lug around. Mostly they are right. For the average Joe who reads to while away time on a train/flight/waiting room or who reads maybe 1 or 2 books a month, it’s definitely not worth it.

But for people like me, who’ll read anything & everything, the Nook is a godsend. The tech blogs reviewing these gadgets can only compare the actual gadget to every other tablet or phone and pronounce their verdict. Most of them don’t cover the actual experience of using one. Even I wasn’t sure if I made the right choice. Would it have been better to get the Nook color? It is, after all, a very good tablet for its price. But just a few weeks of using this device & I knew I was right.

Reading on the Nook is exactly the same as reading an actual book. With an LCD screen – whether on a phone or a laptop – you’re constantly aware of the screen, what other things are going on in your browser/other apps and so on. With my Nook, it’s just me and the words. I can read books from start to finish, without interruptions, that constant nag of window pop ups and the hundredth ‘xyz just poked you’ FB update. On my laptop every time I had to turn a page, it was an intrusive break in the story. Imagine a commercial interrupting you every 30 seconds in a video or movie!

For people who started to read before the internet became ubiquitous, the feeling should be familiar – when you get so absorbed in a good story that you don’t notice the paper or ink or the rest of the world. The words fly off the paper and it feels as if the action is taking place right in front of your eyes! I used to get that experience only from a book. And now my Nook. I do not want my ereader to take notes or annotations or read my mail. I don’t want an eBook which has embedded videos or animated graphics. My phone can do all that.

With my Nook, I always have a book with me to read. And that’s all I ever wanted from an ebook reader.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Don’t We Raise Our Sons like We Do Our Daughters?

This post originally appeard in Women's Web: Why Don’t We Raise Our Sons like We Do Our Daughters? One of the hot button topics right now in Indian media is the safety of women – or rather how our country doesn't really care about half its population. From rape, sexual assault, harassment (in streets, public transport, nearly every public place) to violence perpetrated on women, Indians are finally getting around to discussing taboo topics. One refrain that caught my eye throughout these debates – both online and off – is the fact that the reaction of the majority of Indians is the same: girls should stay at home, not go out after dark, dress appropriately and so on if they want to stay safe. No one seems to bat an eyelid when laying down these precautions for women. Except that the reality is women would be far safer if all the men simply DID NOT RAPE or HARASS any person that looks remotely female. No one has to stay at home and become a hermit! That got me th...
3 comments
Read more

Arranged Versus Love Marriage

This post originally appeared in Women's Web:  Arranged Versus Love Marriage: Here's Why Things Are Changing In 21st-century India, change is so rapid that we barely have time to get used to something before some new trend is on the horizon. And I'm not just talking about technology here. Whether it is human behavior, relationships, societal or cultural norms, Indian society – along with the rest of the world – today is hardly recognizable to my parents or their parents. It's not a surprise that the institution of marriage and the process of finding a life partner is also undergoing a metamorphosis. Perhaps this is one of the areas where the gap between generations is the most obvious. Almost every day, there is a TV show or media report or blog post talking about arranged vs. love marriages. So I figured I would present my take on it as well! Whenever anyone talks about arranged versus love marriages - I don't know why they are always portrayed as opposing ...
4 comments
Read more

One Step Up

Tia “Tia darling! So nice of you to come to my party, it’s been a long time since we met at that charity event!” exclaimed Mona, handing her a glass of wine as soon as she entered. “You look fabulous, my dear!” replied Tia, “So I take it you like the new DSK Spring collection?”, indicating Mona’s brand new designer gown. “Really? Thank you! I remember what you said about me not wearing pink, so I bought this green dress. Anyway,” she said, dragging her farther into the room, “You know most of the people here I expect. I’ll talk to you later, I have to check up on the caterer now.” Someone hailed Tia and she was soon busy with her regular cronies. She wouldn’t have come here if not for Mona, who was one of the few people she felt comfortable with. She disliked crowds but hated being alone even more so. Ten years of homeschooling could do that to a person. She could still recall the day she was kidnapped from school as a young child of 8. The police eventually caught the crim...
Post a Comment
Read more