The Girl with the Draggin' Review

You may wonder how my experiment with my first ebook is progressing.  Well, progressed.  Truth be told, I've been finished with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for several days now.  I guess that's not much of a change from the printed copy experience: I was able to read a well-written, fast-paced thriller within four days.  I didn't feel like I lost any of the action, or that the format distracted from the novel.  On the other hand, Steig Larsson uses fancy computer programs and techy devices like I use salt and pepper, so that probably calmed the voice in the back of my head saying: "I am reading a book on a screen."

Foibles were that, at first, I found it easier to lose my place.  I would put my book away into my purse, only to have the "Next Page" button trigger twenty times and sometimes spoil the action when I pulled the novel back up.  I learned to actually turn the device off when I wasn't reading, and this became less of a problem.  Flipping back and forth wasn't as easy as I'd have liked, and even tho the hard copy would have stood further rereadings, with the ebook I'm going to have to just put the novel down rather than waste the time.  The bookmark feature didn't really help much with either of these issues.

On the other hand, I read the whole book, I read it quickly, and I enjoyed it. Fewer remarks on the difference are all the better for the Kindle. 

Of course, I'm not aiming terribly high by reading the best-selling ebook to date, whose plot devices lend itself to trendy gadgets.  I had more time to kill afterwards and browsed through my sister's library for a weekend read.  After trying a Chuck Palahniuk novel, a Chelsea Handler humor piece, and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, I gave up and borrowed a George Orwell novel from my boyfriend.  In paperback.  This one, I read in two days, and it took up less space in my purse.  I thanked my sister and set her Kindle aside, where it promptly froze up, having run out of batteries.