The e-reader revolution is taking hold.  Last week my colleague Perpetua pleasantly surprised everyone at the office treating us to a Sony e-reader.

It's a lovely Easter gift, and unexpected. Even more unexpected since I had already bought one (as gift to self), which I then sold to another colleague to give to his partner as a birthday gift. One has to be practical..

I thought the gift was a thoughtful "lets-put-our-ideas-into-practice" approach, especially as we are campaigning for a paperless future.

I think they are still a bit on the expensive side (£224 at Waterstone's and £190 through Carbonica) and they must become much cheaper for the mass market.

The Sony e-reader is quite simple to use. To get started, you need to install the eBook Library software (from the disc accompanying the device), which manages the eBook Library between the computer and the e-reader. Then you can install Adobe Digital Editions (from the Adobe site) and you're ready to fish for ebooks. I cannot think of any downside to the device itself, but it is disappointing that there is a general lack of availability of e-books out there, so sourcing the content is the challenge.

Sony recommends the Waterstone's website to download e-books but you will see it's very disappointing and difficult to navigate. Don't even bother. Having the Adobe Digital Editions allows you to download from other sites and read the e-books in a format compatible with the Sony e-reader.

I highly recommend www.ebooks.com and www.booksonboard.com. The choice there is very good, plus it will only get better, with increasing demand (I am sure this will become very big soon). Ebooks.com has also its own viewer called "eb20", a web-based e-book reader application (which you don't need to install) that enables you to flick through a preview of the book through a pop-up window on your computer screen and also read it entirely after purchase, so this gives you versatility to read the e-book on both your computer and the e-reader.

You should also visit www.mobileread.net and download Calibre, which enables the reader to get RSS feeds from sites like BBC News, The Guardian, The New York Times, etc.

Well, that's my limited experience so far. I'm quite enjoying it!

Brunella

Join our campaign for a paperless future.

Every day we consume endless amounts of paper, all of which we can do without.

Utility bills can be received online, correspondence, bank statements. There is increasingly less and less justification for the paper existence of what is received in the post.

This is even more true of all the printed press.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

(1) Don't buy printed magazines or newspapers, read them online. It is cheaper, and you have more choice of content. Huge amounts of paper are used every day by the printed presses. It is the way of the past. Thankfully young people are not buying newspapers anymore. The average person only reads a small fraction of all the articles printed on a newspaper, so most of the paper is wasted. Paper can only be recycled a limited number of times, so the printed press is responsible for depleting our forests!

(2) Get your bills and bank statements online. It is easier to administer, keep track of and it reduces clutter. It makes it easier to pay bills also. No need of a paper shredder either.

(3) Buy e-books. Switch to e-books. They are cheaper than hardcopy books and the more demand there is the greater the number of titles on offer! This is obviously a growth industry at its infancy but it is going to be huge. Buy an e-reader. The current models (Sony and Kindle-2 - the latter only available in the US at the moment) store a few hundred titles at any given time.

(4) Don't print emails. If you need to keep an email to deal with later and you're afraid it will get lost in a sea of emails in your inbox, why not copy it to a "to-do" folder or paste it in a WORD document to deal with separately. If you need to share it with someone, forward it to them by email.

We are embracing the e-reader revolution with open arms. In association with Amazon.co.uk, you can purchase the Sony Reader by clicking on the link below. 

Carbonica will plant a tree for every purchase. How cool is that.

THE FUTURE IS PAPERLESS!