All

Day One
The Sony Reader arrives about 11am with the postman, in the middle of a coffee morning/bookshop thing we do in our garage/drive every Saturday morning. I open the package excitedly, and the Reader gets a lot of interest from those sitting at the tables. My first thought is definitely favourable – it’s sleek, compact, not too look-at-me-and-all-my-shiny-buttons. I would be able to hold it and still feel like a book geek rather than a computer geek and that, my friends, is an important distinction.

One point. Yes, leather bound (hopefully, probably, faux leather) – is this to match the rest of my leather bound books? Cos I’ve gotta tell you, I don’t have a lot of them. At last count it was none. But I suppose this probably isn’t a snobbery thing; they couldn’t really put it in a Virago paperback cover, could they now.

I open the enormous instruction sheet – one large sheet, rather than a booklet – and see that my first plan of action is to plug it in and charge it up.

Day Two
I’m afraid my inital excitement subsided whilst it was charging. Didn’t take that long, but the novelty wore off whilst it was charging… I’ll be back to it tomorrow…

Day Three
Hugely impressed by the number of books available on the website – and some for only 80p. And I’ve loaded Kim by Rudyard Kipling. I’ve flicked through forty odd pages of introduction and other paratextual bits and bobs, before I realise that I could have gone through the Table of Contents function. My fault for not exploring everything first. Having looked at the Table of Contents, I see that I can select the Intro, the Note, the Map… can I choose somewhere in the middle of the book? Only by typing in that page number. Well, if I know it, that’s fine… Can I search for a phrase or something? Not that I can discover. But, then, I can’t do that with a normal book.

Day Four
Reading Kim. Perhaps doesn’t help that I’m not *loving* the book itself – more on that in a different post. I read recently that words on the screen encourage the ‘power browse’ – skimming over a section of text, seeking salient points only. Took a while to stop myself doing that. Once trained, though, the reading experience is surprisingly pleasant – it doesn’t feel like reading a computer screen (not back lit) and, though it doesn’t feel *exactly* like reading a normal book, it’s much closer than I thought. I do have to wear my glasses to read (I think it’s my astigmatism which makes anything on a screen go blurry….?) but that is becoming increasingly true whatever I read.

Day Five
What other functions does it? I like the ‘bookmark’ bit – I press a button and it folds down the corner of the page, and makes a record of it in a separate section on the menu. This I enjoy because I could never do it with a normal book – but here it’s only the pixels being moved around, not a book being damaged. Bonus.
I can make the text bigger, I can see which pages I’ve looked at recently. There are probably lots of other things it can do, but I’ve not worked them out yet.

To Conclude
Much better than I expected. The main quibbles I have are slightly silly – I found it strange to read something on the right-hand side only. The screen going black between each page turn, momentarily, is off-putting. But I anticipated finding the experience rather unpleasant and wholly unbookesque – and it was much nicer than I’d imagined. Still the only advantage over a normal book, that I can think, is being able to carry a lot at once (mine came with a CD of 100 classics).
Very glad to have tried it, but the future of the book is in no danger. I shan’t be transferring over just yet – but neither will I be quite so sceptical.

Something to whet the appetite today, in a to-be-continued review…

I almost deleted the email which had the subject line ‘Sony Reader opportunity’, thinking it was one in the endless line of spam emails which purport to come from every bank or company under the sun. This one, however, was genuine – the very charming Huw was offering me a Sony Reader, gratis, as Stuck-in-a-Book had come up when they were thinking of bookish people to spread the word.

Cue crisis of conscience. ‘Dear Huw’ (quoth I) ‘I would very much like to try out a Sony Reader… but… I should warn you, I’ve not always been warmly in their favour on my blog.’ In fact, I was even more honest than that. Nothing daunted, Huw wrote back saying I could still have one – after all, it would be even more of a triumph if I was won over.

The Sony Reader has been put to the Thomas Twin Test. That is to say, while The Carbon Copy was at home for a long weekend, I asked him to try out the eReader. I’ve also tried it. Tomorrow you get my report – his will follow in a day or two. I should let you know the stats, I suppose. (What does one ‘know’ about horses before races? If I knew the correct word, I’d use it.)

Stuck-in-a-Book a.k.a Simon: Obsessively bookish; slight suspicion of technology; has been known to break an internet cable by plugging it upside down.

The Carbon Copy a.k.a. Colin: Not quite so bookish – it’s in there somewhere, but books have been supplanted by the newspaper of late; rather more capable with technology, but no more than the average 22 year old male.

So you see, we cover different bases. Both like reading; both willing to give the Sony Reader a fair go. What were we reading:

Stuck-in-a-Book: Huw said I could choose something from the list of books available to read on the Sony Reader. I toyed with The Daisy Chain by Charlotte Yonge, but my conscience once more got the better of me, and I chose something from my reading list – Kim by Rudyard Kipling.

The Carbon Copy: I daresay he’ll tell us about his choosing procedure in due course, but the one he ended up with was Hamlet by Shakespeare, fondly known around here as Billybob (remember this?)

Ok. We’re in our starting positions… more tomorrow, when you find out how I got along with the Sony Reader.

And here are some pictures of the completed sort-out!

This is the bulk of the fiction – sadly I had to double stack, but at least there aren’t piles of books on top of each other, as there were before… it’s important all my books are in a logical order, because Our Vicar and Our Vicar’s Wife are frequently asked to find a book and post it to Oxford!

Thanks for all your tips about LibraryThing and other cataloguing websites – I’m a little tired after this sort out, but might transfer it over at some point… I do have a LibraryThing account, but was surprised at their miniscule limit for the free account. What do they think I am?!

And to answer a couple of questions from yesterday – yes, I did get rid of some books! They’ve gone to Honeypot, the church bookshop thing Our Vicar’s Wife runs. Mostly duplicates, it must be said, but I was more ruthless with one or two…. And Peter asks simply “Why?” Hmm. Partly because Our Vicar and Our Vicar’s Wife bought me the filing cards and told me I should do it, partly because I like having the records, and partly because it might stop me buying books I already have! Because my collection is split between two different places, sometimes it gets tricky to remember what I have…

Whilst I’ve been at home, with most of my books, I decided to embark on a project which has been waiting for a while. In the true librarian spirit, I’ve been cataloguing my books. ‘Cataloguing’, in fact, is rather an inaccurate term – my project hasn’t taken the smallest bit of specialist knowledge, or in fact any knowledge beyond the title and author. And, if I can find the record, the date I bought the book and the date I read it.

Our Vicar’s Wife was most in favour of this project because it involved a lot of dusting – my shelves and books are now cleaner than they’ve ever been, and I have little folder books filled with cards with book details. Sadly I’ve now run out of them… which might prove an incentive to stop buying books. Of course it will do nothing of the kind.

Always happy to invite you backstage at Stuck-in-a-Book, here is the sort-out in the middle of its activity. Tomorrow I might unveil the undusty, organised and respectable looking rows of books.

As you can see, each author gets a card, and then their books on that card… so, once I’ve done the ones in Oxford, I’ll be able to tell you how many books I own and how many authors there are – that’s got you on the edge of your seats, hasn’t it? The difficulty will be updating it… especially when I run out of cards… Asda have stopped producing these little books, you see.

So far the author with the most entries?
Agatha Christie. There you are.

Before I write anything else, this cake-related link has made me laugh more than anything in ages…. enjoy!

I was very impressed by everyone in the quiz, I don’t think I’d have done nearly so well, even though I did pick books I’d read, mostly. Between you, all the answers were found. For those still wanting to have a go, look away now…

1. Antony and Cleopatra – William Shakespeare
2. Pamela – Samuel Richardson
3. Emma – Jane Austen
4. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
5. Shirley – Charlotte Bronte
6. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
7. Lady Windermere’s Fan
8. Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
9. Lady Chatterley’s Lover – DH Lawrence
10. Mary Poppins – PL Travers
11. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
12. Mrs. McGinty’s Dead – Agatha Christie
13. Lolita – Vladimir Nabakov
14. Cider With Rosie – Laurie Lee
15. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark
16. Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? – Edward Albee
17. Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt
18. Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
19. Charlotte Gray – Sebastian Faulks
20. The Jane Austen Book Club – Karen Joy Fowler
21. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell

Well done all!
Now, to open it up, which books in your collection did I miss out?
Others I could have included from my bookshelves…

Miss Hargreaves – Frank Baker
Lesley Castle – Jane Austen
Lady Susan – Jane Austen
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day – Winifred Watson
Lady Rose and Mrs. Memmary – Ruby Ferguson
Miss Ranskill Comes Home – Barbara Euphan Todd
Mariana – Monica Dickens
Enter-Patricia – Richmal Crompton
Naomi Godstone – Richmal Crompton
Felicity Stands By- Richmal Crompton
Millicent Dorrington – Richmal Crompton
Mrs. Frensham Describes A Circle – Richmal Crompton
Marriage of Hermione – Richmal Crompton
The Odyssey of Euphemia Tracey – Richmal Crompton
Matty and the Dearingroydes – Richmal Crompton (you get the idea with RC!)
Liza’s England – Pat Barker
Mapp and Lucia – EF Benson
Mrs. Darcy’s Dilemma – Diana Birchall
Mary Barton – Elizabeth Gaskell
Ruth – Elizabeth Gaskell
Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote
Fenny – Lettice Cooper
Mrs. Harter – EM Delafield
Messalina of the Suburbs – EM Delafield
Sister Carrie – Thomas Dreiser
The Memoirs of Letitia Horsepole – John Fuller
Eustace and Hilda – LP Hartley
Winsome Winnie and other nonsense novels – Stephen Leacock
Chloe Marr – AA Milne
Michael and Mary – AA Milne
Clara Hopgood – Mark Rutherford
Vanessa and Virginia – Susan Sellers
Cluny Brown – Margery Sharp
Young Mrs. Savage – DE Stevenson
Mrs. Miniver – Jan Struther
At Mrs. Lippincote’s – Elizabeth Taylor
The Ballad of Sylvia and Ted – Emma Tennant
Miss Bunting – Angela Thirkell
Sylva – Vercors
Miss Mole – EH Young

You’re looking brainy, may I say, so perhaps you’d like a little quiz for the weekend? I made it for the literary week, but wasn’t used, so tonight Our Vicar and The Carbon Copy teamed up against Our Vicar’s Wife (we decided those were more or less fair teams) to have a go at the following quiz… enjoy! (Do read the instructions first… none of them did, and it led to complications…!)

These are the opening lines of novels or plays whose titles feature a woman’s name. The dates signify date of publication. Where XXXX appears in the opening line, it indicates part or all of the name in question.
What are the titles and who are the authors?
1. (1623) Nay, but this dotage of our general’s
O’erflows the measure; those his goodly eyes,
That o’er the files and musters of the war
Have glow’d like plated Mars, now bend, now turn
The office and devotion of their view
Upon a tawny front 2. (1740) I Have great Trouble, and some Comfort, to acquaint you with. The Trouble is, that my good Lady died of the Illness I mention’d to you, and left us all much griev’d for her Loss; for she was a dear good Lady, and kind to all us her Servants. 3. (1815) XXXX, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. 4. (1847) There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. 5. (1849) Of late years, an abundant shower of curates has fallen upon the north of England: they lie very thick on the hills; every parish has one or more of them; they are young enough to be very active, and ought to be doing a great deal of good. 6. (1891) On an evening in the latter part of May a middle-aged man was walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott, in the adjoining Vale of Blakemore or Blackmoor. 7. (1892) PARKER: Is your ladyship at home this afternoon? XXXX: Yes – who has called? PARKER: Lord Darlington, my lady. 8. (1925) XXXX said she would buy the flowers herself. 9. (1928) Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. 10. (1934) If you want to find Cherry Tree Lane all you have to do is ask the Policeman at the cross-roads. 11. (1938) Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. 12. (1952) Hercule Poirot came out of the Vieille Grand’mere restaurant into Soho. He turned up the collar of his overcoat through prudence, rather than necessity, since the night was not cold. 13. (1959) XXXX, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. 14. (1959) I was set down from the carrier’s cart at the age of three; and there with a sense of bewilderment and terror my life in the village began. 15. (1961) The boys, as they talked to the girls from Marcia Blaine School, stood on the far side of their bicycles holding the handlebars, which established a protective fence of bicycle between the sexes, and the impression that at any moment the boys were likely to be away. 16. (1962) Set in darkness. Crash against front door. MARTHA’s laughter heard. Front door opens, lights are switched on. MARTHA enters, followed by GEORGE. 17. (1996) My father and mother should have stayed in New York where they met and married and where I was born. Instead, they returned to Ireland. 18. (1996) Noon. London: my flat. Ugh. 19. (1998) Peter Gregory kicked the door of the dispersal hut closed behind him with the heel of his boot. 20. (2004) Each of us has a private XXXX. Jocelyn’s XXXX wrote wonderful novels about love and courtship, but never married. 21. (2006) Let us begin with two girls at a dance

It’s official. I love Lost in Austen too much. This is utterly daft, but keeps getting better and better – after astonishing revelations concerning Georgiana Darcy and Caroline Bingley, I ought really to be writing to the scriptwriter ‘Damn you and damn every man who won’t light a candle in his window and stay up all night damning you’ (brilliant line!) but, as it is, I adore everything about this programme. In amongst the absurdities and nonsenses were some very genuinely moving moments. I might have to put the DVD on my birthday list – and can’t wait to see what Jemima Rooper will do next…