Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Taking on that Brave New World *The First Step*

Well, I did it! I tackled and conquered that brave new world of ebooks. Yep, I ordered not one, not two but three of them. Now I’ve been wanting to try an ebook for a while now. This from a reader who determined that nope – not gonna go there. I’ve been very happy with my hand held books thank you very much. But buzz works! So does not wanting to be left out of the ebook party. I think I mentioned that I was oh so close to getting an ereader in the fall but I had some unexpected expenses come up so I didn’t get one. So I decided to just load them on to my computer for now. Hopefully if I do take that next step and get a reader, I can move them over to it somehow.
I checked out quickly a couple of ebook sites and found Ellora’s Cave to be extremely helpful in explaining the different options and how the whole thing worked. So I downloaded Microsoft Reader in preparation. Or thought I did. I ran into a glitch when I tried (I thought) to open it and it wouldn’t open in Firefox. I kept trying and got all these pale icons all over the desktop; I think I had four of them at one time, but none of them opened. I have no idea what the pale icons are called; I’m sure some people who are more computer literate person than me are getting a chuckle right about now over my descriptions. Even Keishon tried to help – but it didn't seem to work. Anyway, in a fit of frustration I deleted them all. Then went “oh”. There was a full colour one and I thought “Houston, we seem to be good to go”. I decided to be a copy cat of the two Ja(y)nes and try ordering from three different publishers.



The first one I attempted was Banner’s Bonus from Fictionwise. This is a book I read years ago that the author had revamped and re-released as an ebook. I’ve been itching to try it for quite some time now. I went through all the ordering steps and waited and waited and waited.





While I was still waiting, I went to Ellora’s Cave – since they were so helpful in what I needed. Based on Keishon’s most excellent review, I ordered The Fifth Favor. It went very smoothly although I was amazed that somehow it downloaded straight into Microsoft Reader. For some reason I thought they would send it by email and I would have to download it myself. I don’t understand how their computer knew to send it to my computer, but then I don’t understand radio waves either. I checked back at Fictionwise and still nothing was happening.





Then I moved onto Liquid Silver for Bone Deep. Bam had given it such a glowing review. I didn’t find them quite as user friendly as Ellora’s Cave. I imagine they figured readers knew what they were doing. But, I still managed to upload it, again amazed that it went straight to my computer. Back I went to Fictionwise for the third book and still nothing had happened. Then I had another “oh” moment. I hadn’t hit submit. Once the light bulb went on, it uploaded fine too. So – three books, three successful downloads and I’m ready to start reading!!!



‘til later

11 comments:

CindyS said...

You go girl!! I'm still in my cave typing on a manual typewriter and all that fan-span-gly new stuff terrifies me. Oh and the price you pay - have the prices dropped?

I also saw Bam's review and it was the first time I thought I might emerge from my cave. No such luck. I'm going to wait for the rest of you to go first ;)

CindyS

ReneeW said...

Good job Kristie. I have only ordered one ebook (another by Reed) from Ellora's Cave and it was very easy. I plan on ordering The Fifth Favor and Midnight Rose sometime soon. Oh, Bone Deep looks yummy too, and I'd love to hear what you think.

Valeen said...

I've ordered a few ebooks but like many, hate having to sit at the computer in order to read them. And it seems like such a waste to print them off to me.

I've heard of Bone Deep, good things - let us know what you think as well, I may pick it up. :)

Nicole said...

EC should have also sent you an email with the order confirmation and links to download them if something happened the first time. Always save these! If you somehow lose your ebook, EC is usually good about resending them, especially if you still have your emails.

Kristie (J) said...

Nicole - I wondered about that. How do I save them? On a disc? I have a CD burner on the computer but I've no idea how to go about using it. I know - I'm scary. I don't even have the volume turned up because I'm not used to it. See Cindy - I live in a cave too! So back to saving them. If you could let me know how to do it, i would be ever so grateful. Keep in mind though - KISS

Valeen - Yeh, reading them on the computer is going to take a bit of getting used to. Can't carry it to the bathroom - if you know what I mean. But the reviews just sounded so gosh darned good on these ones, I knew "it was time".

Renee: I will write on these books. I think I'll do more posts on "My adventures in E-Reading" since there are still a lot of readers who haven't crossed that frontier yet - see Cindy above :)

Cindy: Maybe with me taking a step out of that cave, you might be encouraged to give it a try too. Believe me - it was with much trepidation I took that step last night.

Alyssa said...

Good for you! I have to say I did exactly what you did when I decided to take the plunge--considered it for a while, then gave it a try.

I look forward to hearing what you think about the books you chose!

Devon said...

You sound like me. I keep clicking and clicking until something finally works. I'd like to hear what you thought of "Bone Deep". I loved it, read it twice already. I agree with Bam's review--my only quibble was with the ending. Not how it ended, but that it wrapped up too neatly and quickly. I felt like it should have been explored a bit more deeply, or something. Good luck with your new reading!

Tara Marie said...

Good for you.

I'm really thinking about the Bonnie Dee, it's getting really good buzz.

sybil said...

very cool!

Can't wait to hear what you think ;)

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