Best Gadget for a Bookworm

Actually, forget the title of the blog. This is the BEST. GADGET. EVER. OK, so I may be a little biased seeing as I love reading so much. I have loved reading since I was about six years old...well, at least that is my first memory of reading. My mom used to take me to the library to check out books and I remember being able to check out as many books as I was old. I was so excited when I was about to turn seven because it meant that I could check out one more book each time. YEP...I have been a nerd since a very young age. I think I liked reading because I was basically an only child. My brother is 15 years older than I am, which basically made me an only child. I wasn't allowed to watch TV during the weekend, and only a few hours on the weekends. Add that to the fact that I was always at one lesson or another when I wasn't home...well, you get the picture. Books became my best friend. You can always bring them with you where ever you go and yes, as cliche as it sounds, they do open you up to an exciting new world.

Now, reading is great because it helps you with your spelling and vocabulary but...did you know that it can also be bad? I'm one of those crazy people that can read a book a day, sometimes two. Now, this tends to be a very bad thing when you are staying up at all hours trying to finish a book. I always tell myself, " OK, I'll just finish this chapter and then I'll stop." Yeah, right! I get to the end and then think "I'll just start this next chapter" and then the cycle continues. This was especially bad in college when I was supposed to be reading my actual course books. What were my teachers thinking? Did they not KNOW that I had much more exciting things to read? Sheesh! Needless to say, in college I had to force myself to stop reading "my" books until after finals.

OK, so the gadget....it is The Cybook by Bookeen. SO COOL! It's one of those digital readers that there are so many of. Amazon has the Kindle, which you may have heard of. However, that thing is ugly and you are forced to buy the eBooks from Amazon. I found some online comparisons and settled on the Cybook. The Cybook allows you to buy eBooks from anywhere and also reads PDF files. You can also bookmark different pages in your books. I bought mine from Booksonboard.com . They had a great price and also added store credit to the deal. I think they sometimes have a special where they also throw in a memory card that has a lot of clssics loaded onto it. The Cybook is nice because it is so compact and also has a cover. I can fit it into my purse and take it with me everywhere. You can load hundreds of books onto it and can also buy a memory card to hold more (I also have a 2GB card). It's about the size of a paperback but is only 1/2" thick. The screen is nice because it uses e-ink and is not back lit. There is no strain on your eyes like when you read your computer screen. It's like you are reading a regular book but much lighter. I love the fact that I can choose from any book and just read at my leisure. It's great when I am early to a meeting or am just sitting around.

Now, don't get me wrong...I'm still a book nerd at heart. I love my tangible books and have literally over 1000 books. Yep, I've got my own library! Some are I loved my from my childhood. I will still continue to buy hard back books of my favorite authors but will also buy the eBook versions of those I think. Case and point, the Twilight series.

So...if you love reading like I do you should check out that link that I posted. It is the BEST GADGET EVER!