Every now and then my alpha husband does something totally unexpected and thoughtful, reminding me of just how lucky I am to have him. He came home from work yesterday and told me he had an early mother’s day present for me– a Sony Reader! I was a little blown away because those suckers are pricey. His reasoning for buying it? “You do so much for us, I thought you deserved something special.” I know—aaaaah. And this from an alpha male too. I would have loved to have seen him in Best Buy quizzing the salesperson–he’s kind of big and daunting lol–and from what he told me, he had the salesperson kind of confused, but in the end he bought the right thing. It’s nice to know when I babble at him, he actually listens. I’d mentioned wanting to get an e-reader eventually when they came down in price so that I could buy cheap books, but more importantly, being an e-published author, I wanted to know what the e-reading experience was like. Yah, right, I just wanted the cool toy.

Now on to the reader itself. It’s the Sony Reader, burgundy in color with a leather type case to slip it into, kind of posh looking actually. Small was the first word that came to mind when I held it. I expected something a lot clunkier, but it’s like a slim book. It came with a $25 gift certifcate for the Sony Store, so I quickly bought some books–a menage one called Claiming Their Mate by Paige McKellan, Gena Showalter’s Atlantis bundle and Raintree, another bundle with Jo Beverly and other authors. Easy to buy, easy to add to my reader, and fast. I will never have to be bookless again! Course I might need another job to support the books I’m now able to buy from the comfort of my home, but considering my new state of bliss, some sacrifices must be made.

On to the reading experience. It is different from a book, obviously. I like that I can set the font size, but I don’t seem to have a way of setting the contrast, it could be a little brighter, but that’s just me. To turn the page I can hit a button or swipe my finger, totally easy, but the fact you only get one page at a time, means you’re swiping often, especially if you read fast like me. I like that it saves my page when I turn it off making it easy to resume when I power it up again. There’s no color which is a little sad, because the covers are wicked–all those bare chests–but if I need to drool I can always peek at them on my laptop.

A neat feature it has, that made the writer in me go wide eyed, is its note taking feature. I can either type or using a stylus, write. Well for a person who gets some of her best ideas while out running errands, this is fantastic. No longer will I need to chant an idea or phrase that I came upwith while out til I get home to my laptop. From now on I can whip out my reader and wham, my instant fabulous idea will be documented. I can now be more efficient. Totally awesome.

The downside–my nine year old has begged me a zillion times in the last twenty four hours to try it. Over my dead body. This is mommy’s toy, not to mention the books I bought are kind of rated R. LOL.

The upside? It’s small enough to take anywhere and with it able to hold a ton of books, I can always have something to read. With summer coming, that is going to be handy.

Gotta love an alpha who’s thoughtful and most of all loves his wife. Smooches baby.