Sangria and Me: 5 Months Later

I’ve been meaning to do an updated post on my personal thoughts on my red Sony Reader 505, Sangria, and so here we have it. I last talked about it here (and this is where you’ll find out more in-depth about the device itself, how it works, etc.), and this one will be shorter as there’s not too much more to report.

I’m still very happy with my purchase, well, my gift rather. It was money well spent even though I would say the majority of my reading is still done in a print format. This mainly being so because of the state of eARCs being the red headed stepchild still that they are. Yes, many authors and or publishers do seem to be open to e formats for advanced reading, but just as many if not more seem to prefer printed copies of ARCs. And that’s OK. Not everyone is able to get a reader. I really didn’t expect to myself, but having one has made the options for reading ARCs broader, so I am grateful for that.

As for purchases, I have purchased several ebooks for my reader, and mostly that reading has been relegated to category romances for my Year of the Category reading challenge. I must say, I absolutely love reading these shorter format books on my Reader. I don’t know why other than so far I’m not really driven to have printed copies of these particular books on my shelves. What I am reading in print is a different story for me personally because these are mostly series that I started in print format and so I want to keep them all together in the same incarnation. Plus, my TBR pile is insanely large and mostly in print format. I’ll have to give those trees their due and read them as well.

I’m slowly trying to change that, though, because yes, those print versions do take up space. Even though I have two enormous bookshelves, they’re already quite full and I have no more room for more shelves. I suspect that in the future I may only buy printed versions of books that are either not available to download at all or that have a particularly pleasing overall package, from the cover to the contents. There is still something about opening and fingering through those crisp pages. So all is not lost for either format, it just boils down to what I have a taste for at the moment or what is available.

As for the actual workings of the device itself, I’m still pretty pleased with it. I’m pretty easy to please, though. All I really want to do is turn it on and read. If you’re the kind that likes to take notes, this baby doesn’t offer that option. However, I have found that bookmarking pages I want to use, to remind me of a point or to quote from, is usually sufficient enough. If you’re a stickler for the perk, though, you may want to upgrade to the newer 700BC model, which does allow for note taking. The 700BC also has a touch screen; the 505 does not. I don’t mind this though, I’m not gaga about touching screens all the time anyway. Maybe I get enough of that thrill from my iPhone.

I’ve become a little disappointed in the battery, which seems to not stay at full capacity as long these days. I haven’t actually timed it of course, but it does need more recharging than I thought it would, especially when we consider that I still do most reading via print. One thing I noticed; the battery does slowly drain when not in use. I recharged it once, then didn’t use it for a couple of weeks or so and noticed that the battery was no longer at full capacity when I turned it on again. I also had the panic-inducing experience of the battery going 100% dead on me. Panic-inducing because when I attempted to charge it via the computer USB cord, it didn’t do anything, not for almost 40 minutes. I looked up more info about the battery at that point and it turns out that it does take longer for it to even start charging if you happen to let the battery completely die. I don’t think this hurts the battery, but just be aware in case you’re hoping to start charging a 100% dead one instantly. It won’t. Wait a bit and the red light/screen prompt that indicates it’s charging will eventually light up/appear. And you can start breathing again at that point, too.

I have’t bought a wall charger for it yet as there hasn’t been a need. The computer USB has worked sufficiently. If you’re not a traveler or you travel with a laptop, then I would say there’s no need to immediately spend that extra $30 or so. Your laptop chord that it comes with will work just fine.

I’m still very happy that I don’t have a wireless connection to the Sony ebook online store, as Kindle does to Amazon, because dayum – I’d be buying a ton more ebooks. I’m really grateful because I’ve already bought some ebooks I wished that I hadn’t – and you cannot return those ebooks, fellow readers. Not that I know of anyway. Let me know if I’m living under a rock regarding that one. But so far, it’s not problem for me to just plug in that USB and connect to the internet. Now, should Sony enable a wireless feature one day, I probably would roll with it, but for now, it’s not hurting a thing by not being available.

My only other complaint is that reading PDFs is kind of clunky on here. I indicated before that doing so was adequate enough when using Calibre to convert the PDF so that it wasn’t as much of a drain on the battery. However, and it’s probably just my non-tech self not fully realizing how to work Calibre, I really wish there was an easier way to convert a PDF to Sony’s format for the Reader. Because blowing up the text, for example, still will throw the formatting to hell, even after wringing it through Calibre.

Needless to say, downloading directly from Sony’s online ebook store is the best option for reading on the Sony Reader. The format works beautifully and voila – happy readers. So-called promises of Sony formats on other ebook stores have been formatted the same, not that I’ve bought so far. Mostly, ones I’ve bought from other online stores say they’re the right format for the Sony Reader, yet it’s really just a PDF, as the formatting gets thrown all out of whack like a regular PDF. Again, I’m probably not doing something right, but you’d think it would be easier.

Still, I do like Sony’s ebook store; I’ve even found some books there I’d wished I bought there instead of in print format due to weight, cheaper price, etc. Note, the price won’t always be cheaper, of course, but I’ll certainly check there from now on to see if it is.

Out of all the readers available today, I’m still very happy that I got a Sony Reader. Comparitively, it has plenty of what I need when it comes to reading ebooks. I certainly don’t need to be any more spoiled by it than I already am.