This is the Year of the eBook

Oh yes, dear readers, this is the Year of the eBook.

As it happens, I've been reading ebooks for quite some time now, on one device or another. My early experiments with ebooks having been conducted on my Palm Pilot, I didn't really get into ebooks until a rather later device, on which I was able to run Mobipocket - probably the Palm V, I should think. In fact, on installing Mobipocket, I discovered that if I downloaded the PC software, I was able to create my own ebooks. This and the discovery of Project Gutenberg filled my device with classics. I scanned in some of my own books, pushing them relentlessly through character recognition software unable to distinguish the old fashioned fonts of my collection of Biggles books, and filling the void manually, when the software was unable to recognise for itself.

Every time I've upgraded my device, I've installed a reasonable ebook reader, copied my books across, and continued the Odyssey. On moving to the Clié, I re-installed Mobipocket, and found that the scroll-wheel at the back of the device could be use to scroll through the pages. Nice! I moved to Nokia, where Mobipocket was quickly superseded by FB Reader, Mobipocket having no support for full screen on the touch screen devices, and requiring a complete uninstall/reinstall to allow access to the library again.

More recently, on the S3, I installed FB Reader, but I also went ahead and installed the Kindle reader. This, my friends, could have been an expensive learning curve! How easy Amazon make it for you to click Buy on a book, and how many books one buys before realising that there are only so many hours in the day! I've also been able, recently, to set up the volume keys to move on to the next page or back to the previous (thank you Ian!) Thankfully my initial buying frenzy was tempered by the fact that I'd landed in the Bargain Books corner of the Kindle Store.

And so I'm set.

The point, though, is that having moved out of the Big House, and into the Somewhat-smaller-but-all-mine House, I'm a wee bit short of space. My bookshelves are stacked with the books I had spread round the Big House. In fact they're stacked, double stacked and, quite frankly, overflowing! This is all because, as a child having to return books to the library, I vowed I'd OWN books as soon as I had funds with which to buy them. And own books I do. Despite my love of technology, there's nothing quite like the smell and feel of a book. New, old - doesn't matter. They're a wonderful, tactile experience.

Thus the decision was made. Any book on my shelf (with a few exceptions) that I can replace with an ebook copy WILL be replaced with an ebook copy. I will not, however great the saving/provocation, BUY new books without attempting to find the ebook version first. Thus on a recent trip to London, having wandered into Foyles and seen a possible book, I picked it up to purchase... And returned it, resolutely, to the shelf from whence it came! Could I, was it just possible that I was able to buy that very tome, without actually buying THAT very tome?

Indeed it WAS! Not only that, but cheaper than the paper copy in Foyles, too! This is not always the case. A recent trip to Tesco resulted in the inevitable urge, once more, to buy a book, which I resisted, safe in the knowledge that I'd be bound to find it online, and probably save a pretty penny in the process - but alas this was not to be. The ebook price was more than the discounted paperback price. It's got to be said, mean as I am, that I've not yet talked myself into the purchase of said book.

And so the plan is this: If I want a book, I MUST attempt to buy it as an ebook before succumbing to the deliciousness of print.

Now I must go and clear out my bookshelves... Wish me luck!