My Grandfather’s Desk
The most important things Grandpa ever said to me were in private, in low voices, and usually at his desk. If you spent time with Papa, you know what I’m talking about. He’d wait in the garage doorway, and when he caught your eye he’d call you over, tell you to shut the door, sit down, and listen.
As a kid I was enchanted by his desk. It was off limits, but he had all kinds of treasures in there. A pair of designer sunglasses he’d found on a park bench. A one of-a-kind coin. Tools and parts and other knick knacks. And if I didn’t know what it was, he’d give me a “What’s the matter with you kid?” look. Like a five year old’s supposed to know what a wire stripper is for.
- Me and Papa at the San Pablo Reservoir
One time we all went down to the reservoir to go fishing, and sure enough he took me aside and pulled out a little jar of green slime. He told me to dip the bait in it, but keep it quiet. Don’t say anything cause it’d make the other fishermen angry if they found out. To this day I have no idea what that green slime was.
He was always letting me in on secrets like that. He’d give you money for the ice cream truck, but act like he’d got the cash from a bank heist or something. Cash, everything was cash with Papa. And he knew the exact location of every penny he had. I tell people everything I learned about watching your money I learned from Papa.
I don’t remember seeing much physical affection between my grandparents. I don’t remember seeing them kiss, or saying “I love you” to one other. Grandma once told me, you get old enough, and it’s like living with a roommate.
But Grandpa loved her, and I learned to see the signs. When she was having trouble with the TV, he took me aside and handed me two grand in cash and told me we’re going to get her a new one, something HD. I told him, “Papa, they’re not that expensive anymore.”
One night, a few years after Uncle Teeny passed, and Papa’s health started to go, he called me back into the garage. He told me to not worry about him. He said, “I may look bad and sound bad, but I’ll be fine. It’s Mama I’m worried about. You know she’s got it worse than me. She doesn’t look it, but she’s the one you need to watch out for.” I think it’s the first time I ever really saw him express how much he cared about her.
I love you Papa, and I’m going to miss you. Someday I hope I have my own desk in the garage, just like you did.
/kamalani
In memory of Mart N. Jones Jr.
January 26, 1935 — September 27, 2011
NaNo 20 Questions featuring Girlfriend Anne
It’s October, and that means getting prepped for NaNoWriMo! This year, my girlfriend Anne and I went to a plotting workshop run by our local Municipal Liaison. We didn’t get much from the exercise, but one of the activities was to come up with your most productive writing environment. So we sat down later and expanded that activity into a twenty question interview about our own different writing styles.
It’s a fun exercise. We worked on our answers together using EtherPad, and she’s already posted our answers on her blog. I’m replicating that here. Enjoy and maybe try answering the questions for yourself!
1. In what location do you write best?
Jon: I’ve tried writing in a variety of places, but I’ve done my best at home on my couch, or lying face down in bed. I’ve tried coffee shops, but I’m usually too distracted or worried about being kicked out. My first year of NaNo I wrote the majority of my novel on the bus to and from work; not easy in the snow!
Anne: I can write pretty much anywhere. I can be productive writing at home, but it’s harder because that seems to be the only time of year that I actually want to fold laundry. Anything to procrastinate. So often times, I leave and crash at Boyfriend Jon’s place or at a quite location. Coffee shops and bookstores usually have too much stimulus since I’m one of those people that talks to everyone. Other than that, specifics don’t matter. Floor, couch, desk….I’m flexible.
2. When is the best time for you to write?
Jon: My best hours are usually after 10pm. There’s nothing more satisfying than burning some midnight oil, especially when the words are just flowing. There’s also less distractions: either I keep writing or I go to sleep. When I write during the day, I’m much more likely to take long breaks, or work on some other projects.
Anne: I write very well when I can sit and be uninterrupted for a while. But I guess my best breakthroughs come either when I first get up in the morning or in the later evening; 7-12pm or so. Don’t tell my boss but sometimes my lunch hour of writing goes a little longer than it should.
3. How do you structure your writing time? Do you prefer short sprints or long marathons?
Jon: I need the long haul. I usually spend the beginning of every writing session reviewing what I wrote the last time, and when I’m done writing I review what I just wrote. Sometimes I even leave notes for myself for when I sit back down. That overhead doesn’t lend itself to short sprints: when I do write in short bursts, say on the bus, I usually lose a lot of time trying to get myself into character.
Anne: I can do both, it mostly depends on what I’m writing about. If I’m trudging through some tedious dialogue, I have to take it in sprints or I get sick of it. But when writing action, I can’t just stop mid jump kick!
4. Any other environmental factors? Light? Temperature? Noise level?
Jon: I prefer writing in the dark, maybe a single lamp, but that’s mostly so I can see any written notes. If it’s too cold I get jumpy and distracted, but then again, too warm and I’m just as likely to take a nap, especially if I’m working in bed. Slightly cool air with a blanket works for me. As for noise: the closer to silence the better.
Anne: My eyes start to hurt if the only lighting is my laptop screen. Also, I rarely turn on my heater, so I prefer to have it cold enough to need my slippers and maybe a light blanket or else I’ll start getting sleepy. One other item that always seems to surprise people is that I have to have some background noise. I’m not talking music or white noise; but I flip on some uninteresting TV show and leave it on in the background. And somehow, I’m able to ignore it and write.
5. Do you like to listen to music while you write? If so, what kind?
Jon: I can’t listen to anything with lyrics while I’m actually writing. But I’m a big fan of instrumental music, especially electronica and movie soundtracks. I’ve a selection of soundtracks I return to regularly while writing: Gladiator, The Lord of the Rings, or more recently the Tron sequel. I used to think listening to movie soundtracks would distract me; far from it. I usually listen to the music just barely above a whisper, the way background music should be. But I’ll admit, sometimes, right before writing session I’ll listen to a playlist of loud, up-tempo, and high-energy rock music to get me in “writing shape”.
Anne: Ironically, I have a lot of trouble listening to music while I write. Lyrics end up getting written into my story and often times I get some mellow calm music when I have a really intense scene to write. Then I spend ten minutes trying to find the right music for the scene and by the time I get back to being able to write, I’ve forgotten what I was going to write. Occasionally I’ll get lucky with instrumental music like Spanish guitars or soundtrack music, but overall…I just put the TV on and ignore it. Someone once suggested that I get a white noise machine and try that….but those suckers are expensive.
6. Do you like to write with others around you, or do you prefer to fly solo?
Jon: I honestly prefer to write alone. I need time to hem and haw over my words, talk myself through scenes, or otherwise not have to worry about anyone else around me. I don’t get much writing done at social writing functions: I’m usually way too interested in hearing about other’s stories, or bouncing ideas off the other writers.
Anne: I’m definitely a social person. I like to have other people nearby that are doing either the same thing or something quiet so I can concentrate. It’s something about the camaraderie that I like. But I can write just fine on my own.
7. Do you keep any drinks or snacks handy?
Jon: Nothing in particular. I just try to avoid anything that will get my hands sticky. I keep a water bottle close by, and take breaks to go eat elsewhere.
Anne: I’m a pumpkin seed fanatic. I generally fill a gallon bag after Halloween with baked pumpkin seeds…and they’re gone in a couple of weeks. That and my handy camelback water bottle and a fresh supply of ice cold water. I avoid caffeine in general, but I drink a cup first thing in the morning during NaNo so that I’m not falling asleep at my desk from burning both ends of the candle.
8. What’s your preferred writing medium? Are you on the computer, or rocking the old school pen and paper?
Jon: Computer. I grew up writing on the computer, it’s just too powerful a tool for editing. I’ll write a lot of notes on paper, but usually those get transcribed if I’m really serious about them. The bulk of my writing gets done on a little netbook with a whopping 14 hour battery: I can use it all day without worrying about finding juice.
Anne: I type about 70 words per minute. My mom was a stickler for home row being a computer teacher so the computer is natural for me. I haven’t had my laptop very long and you can already see the rub marks on the spacebar from my right thumb.
9. So you use the computer, which program?
Jon: I’ve tried a bunch of writing programs, even written some of my own. When it comes to straight-up, get-it-down-on-paper writing, I use a free program called FocusWriter. It let’s me have a full screen with a large font, just a paragraph or two on the page at a time so I don’t get the urge to edit. It also lets you set and track writing goals, so you can see when you’ve hit your quotas for the day.
Anne: Microsoft Word is good enough for me. I already know all of the formatting hot keys, and when I maximize the screen, it eliminates distractions. So I never needed a special program. The only thing I wish Word had was a bigger buffer at the bottom so I don’t run into the bottom of the screen. I feel like my words start getting crowded when they get too close to the bottom. They need room to breathe.
10. Do you allow yourself access to the Internet? Do you find it to be a distraction?
Jon: When I’m on the netbook, I usually turn off the WiFi while I’m writing. But, occasionally I’ll need to look something up, something I can’t just put in a placeholder for, and then I try to keep myself limited to research. I do however, like to keep tabs open to various name generator sites, just in case I need a quick name.
Anne: I have so much trouble turning my internet on and off…that I just leave it on and close down all windows except the one I’m writing in. Also, I back up my document to Google Docs so I need to be able to paste it over at a moment’s notice in case I need advice from my sounding board.
11. Do you have any other must haves? Good-luck writing charms?
Jon: My feet get cold. I have a pair of old man house slippers that I’ve adopted as my official writing shoes. They give me about a 20% boost to my word counts.
Anne: I have one of those tray tables from As Seen On TV. It’s very helpful for my posture to lean back in the sofa and not have to reach far for my laptop keyboard. Also I have to have something to put my hair up, even if it’s a pencil. If it’s down, I’ll play with it and effectively not type.
12. How long have you been doing NaNo? Why did you start?
Jon: Four years: I started the same year as Anne. I’ve been writing creatively with my friends for years, and that October I had an idea for a story much longer than anything else I’d ever dreamt up. I don’t remember how I found out about NaNo, but I remember really pushing myself that year.
Anne: This will be my 4th year in the NaNoWriMo team. My 3rd as a Write In Host. I started because my best friend told me it would be great and that it would be great for me. Of course that was the year he abandoned NaNo (silly things like 400 level physics classes…psh!). However, he was right. The community, the friendly competition, the built in cheering squad, it all worked for me. And that was the first time I had EVER actually finished a novel. After that, I was hooked.
13. Do you like to use writing prompts?
Jon: Yes and no. I’ve never found them to help me get further along in my own works, or even get me in the mood to write. But I do enjoy the exercise, if anything I love taking a breath from whatever I’m knee-deep in and just write something else for a change.
Anne: I love writing prompts, but only when I get them before or after NaNo. They have a tendency to spawn plot bunnies like nobody’s business. Three of my stories came out of plot bunnies that just grew and grew until they became fully fledged ideas. I even managed to weave plot bunnies in a few more to those stories. They’re great devices to get the creative juices flowing, but I have to be careful that I don’t drown in them.
14. Every writer hits a creative wall now and again. What are your top three techniques for getting unstuck?
Jon: First, I sit back and recall what all of the characters are doing at that particular moment in the story, or what they were doing the last time the reader saw them. That usually gives me a few new openings. Secondly, I get up and act out the scene. Standing up, moving around, and saying the dialogue out loud helps me better grasp what the scene is trying to accomplish. Finally, if I’m still stuck, I’ll just start writing completely out of character, sometimes even out of genre. It doesn’t take long before I say to myself: “Of course the character wouldn’t do X, they’d do Y instead.”
Anne: 1) I have to talk it out. Since other NaNo-ers are fully engulfed in their stories, I have a couple of non-NaNo-er friends who are willing to keep up with my story and offer advice to help get me unstuck. Sometimes the tiniest phrase in the conversation jars my roadblock loose. 2) If my sounding boards are unavailable, I walk away from my computer and do some mundane task. Last year, I had a eureka! moment while scrubbing my tub. And 3) if all else fails, I skip ahead.
15. Do you like to plot out your story in advance, or do you write more by the seat of your pants?
Jon: I’ve been writing creatively for about five years now, mostly short stories, and I’ve experimented with a variety of ways at approaching writing itself. When I pants a story, I end up with five pages about a goat chewing cud. So I’ve come up with a level of planning that I’m comfortable with. I write out an outline with all of the scenes I want, just a one-liner like “introduce Hester”, or “reveal about the cat”. Afterward, if I don’t have enough scenes to make a story, I flesh out in between scenes to pace everything appropriately. Then, each writing session I look ahead a few scenes in the outline and make sure they still make sense with what I’ve been already writing. I usually end up changing 10-40% of the outline as I go along, as add, delete, or move scenes.
Anne: I’m about 90% Pantsing and 10% plotting. I know my characters very well, and set up the setting, and I have a handful of bullet points that I want to cover before I reach the end. I think my biggest problem is that I don’t think out the climax at all. I have gotten to Thanksgiving Day and not had a clue how my story was going to end. That makes for one exciting Turkey day.
16. What aspect of writing do you think you’re best at? Worst?
Jon: Pacing, and keeping the story interesting. I want to like my own writing, and if I can’t get excited about a piece, then I need to fix it. Because I plot and plan so much, I also like to think that I give readers plenty of things to look out for, or rewards for even moderately reasonable attention. It bothers me when I read stories that have so little long-term arcs, or so much unnecessary fluff, that the story could have been pared in half, without damage to the plot or the characters’ development. But all that planning and plotting has a downside: it’s sometimes hard for me to keep track of exactly what I have and haven’t said, and judging how much the reader can reasonably be expected to remember. I have it all in my head, often many versions, and combined with minimal descriptions, sometimes I don’t say enough and the reader gets lost. A scene that makes perfect sense to me is confusing to the reader, because of information I’ve forgotten to emphasize or even put down in the first place.
Anne: My strength is writing intense, thrilling scenes. Also I think I do a good job of not having characters that are invincible emotionally and physically. My weakness is definitely dialogue. Many of my characters end up being the brooding quiet type. Sometimes I can work it to my advantage, but most often not.
17. What inspires you to write? What inspires what you write?
Jon: Sometimes I having noting but a bit of dialog, or single image in mind, that I want to see, that I want to justify existing. Then the exercise is to figure out a story that will make that dialogue or image happen and make sense. I don’t care about getting published, or making money. I think everyone should so something creative, not professionally, but just well enough to share with friends. As for what inspires my writing: real life, books, movies, video games, even some of my stranger dreams. I rate my media not just on it’s own merits, but if after experiencing it all I can think about is doing something creative. I’ll watch a terrible movie and call it great if afterward I feel like writing.
Anne: I write because I have an overactive imagination. It’s a way to get all the random images I see in my mind’s eye out so I have time to make sense of them. Also I come from a long line of Italian story tellers. The need to entertain has always been strong. In addition to an overactive imagination, I have an overdeveloped sense of justice. And I know in this world, too often the bad guy goes free. So it gives me immense satisfaction to have my villains get their comeuppance.
18. How does competition affect your writing?
Jon: I’ll admit, the first two years of NaNo I enjoyed competing with Anne, and keeping up a playful game of chase on the website. Last year I wanted to hit 100k for me and for my story, it wasn’t a matter of competing with anyone but my own goals. I just want to write the stories, I’m doing it for me. I’m not competing with anyone.
Anne: I’m the youngest of four children and I grew up in a neighborhood full of boys. To say I’m competitive is an understatement of a major degree. I don’t hate other people when they win, but I’m still gonna do my darndest to come out on top. I think my original friendly competition (along with a healthy dose of flirting) with Boyfriend Jon is what got me through my first year. Without that added incentive, NaNos 2-4 might never have been.
19. What incentives do you have for completing NaNoWriMo this year?
Jon: I’ve been editing last year’s novel for six months now. This year, NaNo is almost a fun break from that, a chance to explore some of the other ideas I’ve left on the back burner for a while.
Anne: The same ones I did the other years. A pedicure and a foot massage – one of the few girly indulgences that melts me completely. Also, Boyfriend Jon and I might have a little bet going on, but I’ll leave that to the imagination.
20. Are you planning on trying anything new this year?
Jon: I’m going to write two independent short stories instead of a single novel this year. I’ve got one idea I really want to put down, and it’s rare I can think of something that can be so self-contained. But also I want to continue my series with the next short story so I have something to look at while I give my novel a breather. Practically speaking, I’m also trying to have a more scheduled writing time, something I can turn into a habit to keep after the month ends.
Anne: This year, in addition to finishing my story again, I’m aiming for 60k words. I definitely think it’s doable and I think it will give me enough room to flesh out my story adequately. Also as a Write In Host, I’m starting a Black Friday Write in to counteract the lost time on Thanksgiving Day. Hopefully that will be a big enough hit that we can make it an annual event.
5 reasons the PocketBook 360 is a better ebook reader
I recently wrote an extended review of the PocketBook 360 ebook reader after having owned one for over a year. It wasn’t until after I posted it that I saw how long it was, so I’ve decided to summarize my love for the PB360.
Here’s the top 5 reasons the PocketBook 360 is a better ebook reader:
5. User replaceable battery
It’s a sad fact that having a user replaceable battery impresses me these days. It used to be a given that you could change a device’s batteries. Now at best you have to send stuff back, at worse you have a pretty brick. Not everyone belongs to the “replace your toys every 18 months” crowd.
4. Built-in cover
Ereaders have nice big glass screens that needs protecting. The PB360 has a hard cover that snaps on the back when in use, which means no ugly, bulky, heavy, “look it’s a book” covers.
3. It isn’t stuck in any one ecosystem
I don’t need a plate that only works at one restaurant. With my PB360 I can read a ton of formats, which means I can choose from a variety of retailers. There’s no special software either, I can plug my PB360 into any PC to copy books over. If Amazon’s prices get too absurd, what’re you gonna read on your Kindle? PDFs?
2. No superfluous hardware
I don’t want a keyboard that I need 0% of the time and takes up a third of the ereader. I don’t need it to play mp3s, or connect to a B&W slow internet. I want giant buttons that make it easy to turn pages, and I want something so light that when I drop it on my face I don’t get a concussion. Give me something elegant and functional that I actually can carry around everywhere. The PB360 delivers on all counts.
1. You own the experience
I can customize just about everything on the PB360. You can add whatever fonts you want. You can specify any size, and change it on the fly. You can set your margins, the aliasing, what stuff to put in the status bar, or if you don’t want a status bar at all.
You can reassign every button. You can set whatever screen savers images you want. You can organize your books as you see fit. Want to navigate by covers, fine. Lists? Fine too. Only want to refresh every 10 pages, making page turn wicked fast? You decide.
What it all comes down to is this: if you like others calling the shots, buy a Nook or Kindle. If you like to have everything just the way you want it, buy a PocketBook 360. You won’t regret it.
/jon
A year ago I purchased a PocketBook 360 e-reader, and after a month I wrote a review about the device on Amazon. It’s been my constant companion since then, and though I’ve tried most of the competiting devices, I still keep coming back to my good ol’ PB360.
The Hardware
Here are the specs, courtesy E-Readers Plaza:
| Display 5″ E Ink® Vizplex G-sensor/Accelerometer CPU Operating system E-Book formats Image formats |
Additional Software RSS-News, Calendar, Notes, Sudoku, Games Connectivity Memory Memory slot Battery |
Size with cover 4.6” x 5.5” x 0.47” 118 x 140 x 12 mm Size without cover Weight Color |
The Look
Over the years I’ve gotten kind of tired of black electronics, and the ivory PB360 looks great. I love the faux vine-engraving on the cover, and more than that, I love that it comes with a cover. Every other e-reader aficionado I’ve met has to buy a separate case, doubling or tripling their device’s weight, plus adding some useless flap you have to hold or fold back. The PB360′s included hard cover snaps effortlessly to the back when you’re reading, which is quite handy.
The screen is a comfortable 5in e-ink, and I regularly read in the sunlight, so no glare issues or eye strain. I can’t overstate how wonderful that is. Don’t let the smaller size dissuade you, you’ll never miss the extra inch from the the 6in. Kindle or Nook screen. Of course, if you’re reading large-format technical works (say a textbook), then e-ink probably isn’t your best choice anyways.
When it comes to page turns, forget other e-readers annoying flash to clear the screen after every page. The PB360 lets you specify how often you want to refresh (more on that in the software review below), which means the page-turn speed on this thing smokes other readers. Sure, eventually you need a full refresh, but I get by on every ten pages without the text getting ugly. I’ve read that the Kindle and Nook have finally added this feature, but they’re still slower and still refresh more often.
Finally, one of the biggest draws of the PB360 was its lack of keyboard. Call me crazy, but I want to read on my e-reader. A full physical keyboard looks dumb, and is completely unnecessary 99.9% of the time. Never in this past year have I regretted not having a keyboard. There’s an on-screen keyboard if you really need it, but it’s been more a curiosity to me than anything else.
The Feel
The PB360 is tiny, but even with my giant hands I’ve not had any problems. The buttons are large and exactly where they need to be, right under my thumb. I can use the device completely one-handed, without getting tired or having to leverage the device against anything.
I do most of my reading on the bus to and from work, or at night in bed. I can hold the device in one hand while the other holds the rail or defends my bags, or lay in bed and hold the device over my face without worrying about jeopardizing my beaut of a mug. I can slip it in my jacket pocket when I pay the fare, or while I’m paying for groceries. The thing weighs a measly 5.3 ounces, even with the cover! Even after year to catch up neither the latest Kindle (8.5oz) or Nook (7.43oz) beats that, and that’s sans cover.
Finally, I turned off the accelerometer almost immediately after purchase, because I don’t want the screen to turn when I’m laying down in bed. But since it’s just a menu click away to manually the change orientation, I can easily flip the reader for left-hand use, say while I’m eating lunch. Flip your Kindle upside down and try to stay looking hip.
The Battery
I’m not exaggerating when I say I can literally count the number of times I’ve plugged in my PB360 to charge in this past year. I’ve gotten by with the trickle-charge from copying over books via USB. This thing is a monster and I go months at a time without needing to plug it in to anything. I’ve never worried about its battery dying.
It’s also user replaceable, which is a big plus in my book. I’ll definitely get new batteries until my PB360 croaks.
The Memory
The PB360 has less internal memory than it’s competition. Doesn’t bother me. I’m carrying about 150 books on the internal memory, which takes up a grand total of 66MB. I still have 400MB to go. If in 10 years I finally fill her up, I’ll just pop in a microSD card. Done.
The Software
Here’s where the PB360 really shines, and at the same time highlights why it may not be the best e-reader for everyone.
General Feel
I’ve come to love the interface on the PB360, but I’ll admit that when I first starting using it I snickered at its “made in China” feel. At first I thought it lacked a little of the sophistication I expect from consumer devices, but I’m a software tester by day and it’s my job to look out for crappy user experiences.
But it’s been a year and my complaints are still minor, mostly that I read several books at once, and with only the two most recent on my home screen, I have to search through my collection more often. Using the Favorites list helps. And after trying the competition, I think it’s way more usable than the Kindle. There’s nothing really obtuse in the interface, it’s just not very flashy. Big deal.
Customize Everything
There are two broad extremes of software designs for consumer electronics:
- Manufacturer makes the decisions. The interface looks the way it looks, maybe you can change one or two things. You’re restricted to the service the manufacturer provides.
- Customer makes the decisions. You can customize practically everything. You can pick your own service.
The Kindle is closer to number one. You have a couple fonts and a half-dozen font sizes to choose from. You have to void the warranty just to put on custom images for your screen-saver. You’re heavily tied into Amazon for buying books. You can get books elsewhere, but it usually means jumping through hoops, and forget DRMed purchases from other stores.
The PB360 is closer to number two. You can customize almost everything. It comes with a few fonts, but you can add any regular True Type font you want and the PB360 can use it. Pick any font size. You can adjust the margins, the line spacing, every possible thing you could imagine about how the text looks, just like a word processor. I favor Gentium at 24pt, but you don’t have to, because the choice is yours.
You can pick a different style for the menus. You can set whatever you want to be the screensaver image. You decide how much info you want in the status bar at the bottom of the screen, or even if you want one at all.
You can even customize what every hardware button does, for both short and long presses. Saving bookmarks, adjusting the font size, skipping pages, every possible operation that you might want instant access to you can assign to a button.
Important Note: Most of the best customizations require a custom version of fbreader (the software it uses to actually display the books), which is a must-install to maximize the PB360′s power.
Reading Books
The PB360 gets reading books right, hands-down. I’ve already mentioned the fast page-turn and the ability to tweak the text to exactly what you want. With the fast page-turn mentioned above, a 10 second boot, and 5 seconds to open a book, I get in and reading right away.
Even better, and this feature is killer, but during those 10 seconds it takes to boot, you can set the PB360 to automatically show a still image of the last page you were on. That means I can continue reading the instant after I hit the power button. And by the time I’ve hit the bottom of the page, the device is booted up for real, and I can turn to the next page without skipping a beat.
I’m not putting the device to sleep, that’s on a cold boot. Which helps explain the monster battery life. I can afford to turn the device off completely every time, because of this feature alone.
Add the easy to use main context menu and the custom button assignments, and I have complete control over my reading experience.
Getting Books
Here’s where I think most people will have problems with the PB360, because there’s no obvious answer here, you have to decide yourself. With a Kindle or Nook you’re given a tightly integrated ecosystem where you’re never more than an on-device click away from getting new books. With an internet connection, you’ll be hard pressed to be left out in the cold with nothing to read.
The PB360 doesn’t have a dedicated store, and I find that to be a big plus. The device can read a staggering number of formats (see the table above), including the almost-standard EPUB, of which there are many online stores to choose from. Kobo, Barnes and Noble, etc. The PB360 does support Adobe Digital Editions (ie. DRM), which means you can also get ebooks from your local library if they subscribe to Overdrive.
You have only the USB port and the microSD to get books onto your PB360, which usually means you’ll need to be around a computer. The PB360 will show up like a regular mass storage device and you can copy files over without any special software. Since I live in a multi-platform world, this is perfect for me.
I do use the cross-platform Calibre to manage my ebook collection, and it works wonderfully with the PB360. When I get books in other formats, Calibre makes short work of converting them. I keep the books organized by author on the device, which makes navigating my large collection pretty easy.
In short, I love the freedom of choice the PB360 gives me, but I wouldn’t give one to my Grandmother unless I plan on always being on hand to add new books. If the idea of having to copy files over manually scares you, give Calibre a try, but it’s still not as easy as just going to the on-device store and clicking “Buy Now”.
PDF Support
Yes, the PB360 supports PDF. No, I don’t use it often. It kind of works for fiction, and can reflow text reasonably well (with of course plenty of options to tweak it), but it’ll always look uglier than other ebook formats. If you’re looking at reading textbooks or anything with lots of diagrams or complicated layouts, you’re looking at the wrong device.
Other Features (That I mostly don’t use anyway)
The PB360 has a dictionary and can clip notes, set bookmarks, and the other things most e-readers can do these days. I’ve not needed any of it. Each book keeps it’s own place, and I’ve not needed to look up any words or felt the need to save anything for later.
There’s also a tiny selection of other apps, games like Sudoku, and a way to have news feed like content (like an offline RSS reader), but that’s not why I bought the device. If anything it’s my only real complaint against the PB360, that I can’t hide that stuff on the home scene and add say, a larger list of recent books. But usually I’m too busy reading to care.
I should note for completeness that the Kindle and Nook may offer other features like mp3 support (for a large awkward audiobook player maybe?) and text to speech, which the PB360 has no answer for.
Conclusion
I loved the PocketBook 360 when I bought it a year ago, and I still love it now. I’ve read a bunch of books on it, and I expect to read many more over the years. The price is much better than it was a year ago (I paid close to $240 for mine) but I don’t regret it at all. I’ve since bought a Nook Color, but even after a single day I was back with my trusty PB360, and now the NC mostly collects dust.
/jon
Updated Pawsgaard page with Kindle version and more!
I have just updated the Pawsgaard page with some new stuff, including:
- A Kindle-compatible version (DRM-free mobi)
- Cleaner versions of the other formats (text, html, drm-free epub)
- An excerpt from the story
- A cover image
I’ve been quite busy this past week learning the ins and outs of making ebooks. First, I created a build system for generating the formats I need automatically (using a combination of txt2tags, make, and calibre‘s ebook-convert). Then I fired up GIMP and Inkscape, and with my new tablet, whipped up a simple cover image for the story.
So go and check out the new page and read Pawsgaard today!
/jon
A couple months into my great HatKK edit, I hit the part in the story where Hester recounts the story of the warrior-rabbit Sven Pawsgaard. I found that there were some strange problems with the villain’s motivations, and so I decided it was time to bring the story of Pawsgaard into line with my future plans for the series.
So for the past month I’ve toiled away on the old text, (including reworking my toolset, which I’ll post about soon). Now, finally I’ve uploaded a new draft!
Check out Pawsgaard: A Guineawick Tale by Jon Thysell where you can download the story for free in text, html, or epub formats.
Now it’s back to editing HatKK. I’ve only got two months to get a readable draft out before I start outlining the next book for NaNoWriMo 2011.
/jon
The great HatKK edit begins
It’s been two and a half months since I finished Draft 0 of my first Guineawick Tales novel, “Hester and the Kookaburra King” or HatKK. I’ve spent some time organizing all of my notes from Pawsgaard and thinking about where I want to take the series. Before I started editing HatKK, I wanted to make sure that I was aware of anything I wanted to seed in advance, as well as make sure that everything is consistent between the two stories.
Last night I finally figured out a problem in Pawsgaard that started bothering me mid-November last year. What is the cat’s motivation? For such a supposedly cunning adversary, why do his actions seem like random villainy? The answer struck me last night, and will require some minor changes to Pawsgaard.
Minor in the amount of text to change, but perhaps major in the effect to the events of HatKK, and development of certain characters. But I don’t want to lose any momentum on editing HatKK, so I’ve made a bunch of notes of the tactical changes I will need to make to Pawsgaard, but I won’t go back and actually change the text for right now.
Moving forward, I will just assume that those events have taken place as such, and continue with the great HatKK edit. As I’ve mapped it out, I hope to get to the next draft by mid-May.
Wish me luck!
/jon
2010 in review
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.
Crunchy numbers
A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 4,900 times in 2010. That’s about 12 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 21 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 32 posts. There were 15 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 685kb. That’s about a picture per month.
The busiest day of the year was July 31st with 50 views. The most popular post that day was The Hacker’s Diet with OpenOffice.org.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were en.wikipedia.org, jeremy.zawodny.com, ask.metafilter.com, facebook.com, and community.livejournal.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for p90x spreadsheet, pdnsd ubuntu, punish pad, hacker’s diet, and punishpad.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
The Hacker’s Diet with OpenOffice.org August 2009
36 comments
Setup a persistent local DNS cache on Ubuntu Jaunty with pdnsd and OpenDNS September 2009
6 comments
PunishPad August 2009
13 comments
Interest in an OpenOffice.org P90X spreadsheet? April 2010
6 comments
Resumé August 2009
Writers draw water from a shared ocean
As a writer, programmer, and maker of things, I keep myself abreast of the various developments in copyright law, and the evolving media landscape. The past decade has been a mix of amazing progress (powerful cheap/free creative tools that remove the barriers to entry), and horrifying regression (the abuse of copyright to support outmoded businesses at the cost of culture).
Today I found this quote from comic book writer/artist Dylan Horrocks:
When we’re honest, most writers will admit that our work is not entirely ours. We don’t invent our stories out of nothing. The truth is, we make them out of what’s come before and what surrounds us every day: the world we live in, people we know, stories we’ve read and images we’ve seen. We swim in a deep ocean of culture, and in a very real sense, everything we make is made from that vast, shared sea. We are part of it, just as we are part of the world in which we live. If we treat that ecosystem as nothing more than raw materials to be torn up, exploited and sold in the marketplace, then sooner or later the whole system will fall apart. And if we draw water from the shared ocean — as all writers do — we must also learn to give something back. The relationship between a writer and their work is vitally important and must be respected. But we must also respect the countless other relationships that form around our stories and ideas: those who read them, share them and respond by making something new.
It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged links and/or articles, (I usually just put the links in my del.icio.us feed) but I thought that this was particularly noteworthy, because it fairly accurately articulates my own feelings about writing, art, and culture in general.
/jon
NaNoWriMo is over, I decided to take my 550 kB text file manuscript of Hester and the Kookaburra King (which I’ve dubbed Draft 0) and format it for manual editing. It took an hour in OpenOffice Writer, and I ended up with 430 double spaced pages.
That’s almost a whole ream of paper. It measures two inches thick. That’s right, that’s two inches of solid paper. Maybe not so green, but for the first draft I just have to edit on paper with a red pen.
Looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me.
/jon
P.S. In the meantime I’m already brainstorming the next stories, I’m thinking three novels (everyone loves a good trilogy) with short stories in between for the Guineawick Tales canon. One thing at a time.
