Aussiecon and e-readers
The last worldcon I attended was in 1981, the first one I attended with my wife who was totally bored the entire weekend. While I have yearned to attend another one, it has never seemed fair to do so. I’ve been fortunate to receive copies of all the Memory Books through friends and APAs that I’ve belonged to.
Other friends have encouraged me to join worldcons for the purpose of voting for the Hugo Awards, but as the cost of Supporting Memberships has escalated, it never seemed worthwhile to spend $40-50 just to vote for the Hugo Awards and receive a few Progress Reports, when I was fairly certain I would get a copy of the Memory Book for free.
Until this year. Aussiecon is providing a bundle of electronic versions of all the Hugo nominees. That includes novels and novellas, a package which itself is certainly worth the $50 cost. So I joined a week ago, and this morning I downloaded the bundle of nominated novels. Of course, being largely apathetic about technology–I use it similarly to how I use my car, great for driving but who cares about the functions under the hood?–I have not yet figured out how to access those novels. Fortunately, my computer guru is coming visiting today, so I assume that problem will be solved imminently.
Since I will be retiring from my job in one more week, I anticipate actually having time to read the Hugo nominations this year, and hopefully vote before the deadline next month. That would be my first Hugo vote in nearly 30 years, not that I expect it to have any influence on the outcome. I wonder if I’ll feel more disappointed in the award results when I actually participate in them?
I’ve been considering reading more e-books rather than keep filling up my house with paper books, but I have not yet determined the best format for doing so. I tend to oppose the Kindle, because it does not seem as if I would actually have possession of a book, rather paying for access to a book which would be “stored” at Amazon.com. I want an e-reader which enables me to keep a copy of the book I purchase on my computer. Is that asking too much, or too antiquated a need? I’m not sure, but right now that is one of my requirements for an e-reader.
I’ve never been one to jump on new technology, so I’m waiting patiently for the new e-readers to work out their bugs until I make a purchase. While it will not be overly-convenient reading the Hugo-nominated works on my computer, that will do until I work out exactly how I want to enter the e-reading era.
Other friends have encouraged me to join worldcons for the purpose of voting for the Hugo Awards, but as the cost of Supporting Memberships has escalated, it never seemed worthwhile to spend $40-50 just to vote for the Hugo Awards and receive a few Progress Reports, when I was fairly certain I would get a copy of the Memory Book for free.
Until this year. Aussiecon is providing a bundle of electronic versions of all the Hugo nominees. That includes novels and novellas, a package which itself is certainly worth the $50 cost. So I joined a week ago, and this morning I downloaded the bundle of nominated novels. Of course, being largely apathetic about technology–I use it similarly to how I use my car, great for driving but who cares about the functions under the hood?–I have not yet figured out how to access those novels. Fortunately, my computer guru is coming visiting today, so I assume that problem will be solved imminently.
Since I will be retiring from my job in one more week, I anticipate actually having time to read the Hugo nominations this year, and hopefully vote before the deadline next month. That would be my first Hugo vote in nearly 30 years, not that I expect it to have any influence on the outcome. I wonder if I’ll feel more disappointed in the award results when I actually participate in them?
I’ve been considering reading more e-books rather than keep filling up my house with paper books, but I have not yet determined the best format for doing so. I tend to oppose the Kindle, because it does not seem as if I would actually have possession of a book, rather paying for access to a book which would be “stored” at Amazon.com. I want an e-reader which enables me to keep a copy of the book I purchase on my computer. Is that asking too much, or too antiquated a need? I’m not sure, but right now that is one of my requirements for an e-reader.
I’ve never been one to jump on new technology, so I’m waiting patiently for the new e-readers to work out their bugs until I make a purchase. While it will not be overly-convenient reading the Hugo-nominated works on my computer, that will do until I work out exactly how I want to enter the e-reading era.
1 Comments:
My lovely wife just gave me a Sony EReader for our anniversary. The version she bought requires you to download the book onto your computer then copy it onto the ereader. I am very impressed with it. I have a lot of allergy problems that limit my reading with the small print in most paperbacks today. With the ereader I can make the print larger. So far I have had no problem with it.
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Jim Black, At
10:52 AM
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