I’ve been away the last few days, visiting a friend in Toronto. I took along my new Kobo reader.

Good things about it:

1. It’s light

2.I didn’t have to buy anything for the trial as it comes with 100 books. I read Emma, a novel I had neglected.

3. I could change the font to reflect whether or not I wanted to wear my glasses.

4.No light source, so no computer like beam into my eyes at bedtime.

5.I could carry it in a small purse.

6. I read it at a solo lunch. No keeping the pages open with the greasy fingers on one hand while trying to eat with the other.

7. No one could see what exactly I was reading.

8. It’s cheap, compared to the Kindle or the iPad.

Things I didn’t like:

1. No wireless, so no instant download if I had a mad urge to read something other than one of the downloaded books while away from my computer

2. No clock. (Okay, I don’t wear a watch.)

3. No light source, so reading was difficult in a dark cafe.

4.Font changing limited to smallest, smaller, small, medium, large, etc. not a number. No change in font style.

5.No one could see what I was reading so no conversation starting questions.

6.The battery seems to have a much shorter life than advertised. 8000 page turns relates, I think, to the number of times the page is turned on the machine, not in the actual book. I have no idea how many times i turned the page while reading Emma, but I did have to recharge.

7. It doesn’t ship with the adapter needed to allow a recharge from an electrical outlet rather than the computer. I used the one for my iphone.

8. It’s not as pretty as the iPad.

9. No underlining of favourite passages.

All in all, I like it. It’s a single purpose machine, that performs that function well. The features it lacks would all increase the cost and the weight. Within the time it took to read a few pages, I found myself just reading, and not focussing on the fact that I wasn’t reading a “real” book. Emma was still Emma. I did miss the ability to go back to previously read pages to find something I wanted to read again. It is possible  to do that but it’s tedious.

I wanted a light weight storage/reading device that I could take to Europe. Kobo will do just fine. If I wanted to go into the Amazon, far from electrical outlets, it wouldn’t.