Finally gone and done it - and a heartfelt plea to authors!

Well I've finally gone and done it ......... I've bought a Sony Reader.

Why? Because I needed cheering up, with at best months and months of horrible medical treatments in front of me and at worst - we won't go in to that.

The result? I'm very happy with the reader - so lightweight, portable, easy to use - and with an adjustable font size so I never need to use reading glasses. I can hold it and turn the pages in either hand which makes reading in bed so much easier too. I can sit in the garden in bright sunlight reading it with no problem.

But I'm sadly disappointed at the lack of crime fiction ebooks available for us in the UK. It's hard work finding the ones I want, and I've had limited success so far. Part of the problem is that I have narrow requirements: specific authors and specific titles.

What I desperately want to be able to read and can't at the moment:

Louise Penny: two earlier Three Pines mysteries: Still Life (not UK) and Dead Cold
Ann Cleeves: Red Bones
Natasha Cooper: A Poisoned Mind

And so many more!

What I'm looking forward to buying on 28th April:

Yrsa Sigurdardottir: My Soul To Take (from HarperCollins US site)

What I've read on my Sony Reader so far:

Henning Mankell: Before The Frosts (mostly enjoyable)
Kate Summerscale: Confessions of Mr Whicher (engrossing)
Margaret Moore: Tuscan Termination (annoying)
Asa Larsson: The Blood Spilt (loved)
C.J.Sansom: Revelations (currently)

So, a heartfelt plea: authors, PLEASE ask your publishers to release your new titles as ebooks for us in the UK, and harry them to make available as many of your back catalogue as possible too!

UK: When will the Kindle be available here?

Why are we wa-aiting?

Of course, I know the technical reason given by Amazon: they have to sign up a variety of wireless networks to cover the whole of Europe before they want to go to the effort of introducing the Kindle over here.

But surely they must have some idea of when it is likely to be launched in the UK? I have been seriously thinking about buying the Sony Reader for several months, but each time I restrain myself in the belief that as soon as I do, the Kindle will be launched in the UK and I will kick myself for not waiting.

Today, searching for a copy of Charles Todd's A Fearsome Doubt which I want to read because it's set in Kent and I'm still working on my Wheredunnit book proposal [Promise to self: This WILL be completed by the end of January] I discovered that I could download it immediately as an ebook. So I'm all of a dither again.

There seem to be drawbacks and advantages to both the Sony and the Kindle.

The Kindle:

• It's not available in the UK and there are no details as to when it will be: very big CON
• Judging from the US website there are thousands of crime fiction books which I might want to read all ready for downloading: PRO
• But - the UK website might not have as many as the US one, and we might not be able to download from the US Amazon - Sony US ebooks aren't available to UK readers: CON
• From the available images, the Kindle isn't as attractive as the Sony 505: CON
• The Kindle has a keyboard, so you can make notes on what you are reading: PRO
• Eventually, when the wireless is set up, downloading wirelessly will be very rapid: PRO
  
• There is no effective & attachable light for the Kindle, only those old-fashioned clip-on things which I've never got on with for real books: CON
• Kindle books appear to be cheaper than Sony books, though it's hard to make a comparison: PRO

Pro: 4 Con: 4

The Sony 505

• It's available here now: very big PRO
• It's cheaper than the Kindle is likely to be, at £194, which includes a CD of 100 classics: PRO
• It's prettier than the Kindle, and the 505 has buttons to make one-handed reading easy: PRO
• A lighted cover is available for reading in the dark without disturbing anyone (or reading in most hotels nowadays): PRO
• There's no way of entering notes about books being read: probably a CON
• It isn't wireless. Can't see this as a problem for myself, as I won't be wanting newspapers and magazines. But never having experienced it, I might be quite wrong: probably CON
• The choice of books from Sony/Waterstones (and other UK-available sites) is fairly limited. For instance, I couldn't have got the latest Arnaldur Indridason: CON
  
• The books available from Sony/Waterstones are VERY expensive - 'The Private Patient' is even more costly as an ebook than it was to purchase as a hardback: big CON

Pro: 4 Definite Con: 2 Probable Con: 2

So I remain undecided - for now. But I don't think I can hold out much longer..........