TechTalk: Barnes and Noble Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight - Part One - Unboxing

Recently, I've taken up a new job in the city of London. As I live in the outskirts of London [so far north west, in fact, that they forgot to give my town a north-west postcode], this means that every day involves a 40-60 minute commute on the tube. As a result of the official rules of the Underground, whereby I can't look anyone in the eye, say anything out loud, or make any discernible or communicative facial expression whatsoever, this means that my brain pretty much switches off for around an hour every day - not so useful when you're in a job that expects you [to at least attempt] to be 'on it' from the word go.

Up until now, I've been reading books on my tablet, a three year old Asus Transformer TF101. Admittedly, it's been fantastic - it handles PDF files [such as magazines and journal articles] perfectly, and hasn't been too shabby at letting me read ePub books, either, having been my reader of choice for books such as One Day, and The Mechanic's Tale. Sadly, the tablet's starting to get a bit slow, and it's not exactly perfect for reading with on a tube packed with morning or evening commuters - turning the 'page' requires two hands [so you can't turn the page and hold onto the train at the same time if you're standing] or one hand and a nose [but I don't want to look that insane], and the tablet's a bit heavy to continuously hold for 30-40 minutes non-stop.  At the same time, reading for long periods of time can be a bit of an eyesore with a tablet.

As a result, I've now decided to become one of "them". That's right, I'm now one of those seasoned, hard-core commuters who know exactly where their oyster cards are at every moment of the day, know exactly which carriage to be on to get off as quickly as possible at their departure station, and carry an e-reader. My e-reader of choice is the Barnes and Noble Simple Touch, given that I was able to purchase one on eBay for around £40. I opted for a model with the GlowLight, so I could read in the dark without spending even more money on clip-on lights and other accessories.

Unboxing

The Nook Simple Touch is packaged stylishly in a two-part box, which slides out of a branded cardboard piece, fully loaded with information about the device, and reviews of the device - much like real books. 

The box contains the actual e-reader in one section, and the micro-USB cable, charging brick, and other gubbins in the bottom section. The device itself was packed up well in soft, foamy material, but the charging pieces were only protected with cardboard.

Getting started was pretty easy, and was achieved by pressing the power button on the back of the unit for a couple of seconds.

The front of the device features a 6 inch touch screen [that actually feels a bit like textured paper when you rub your finger over it], with an almost rubberized bezel that allows you to grip the unit well. The Simple Touch with GlowLight has a silver trim, making it look slightly different from the 'bog standard' [yes, that is a technical term] Simple Touch, which has a black trim. There are 'page turn' buttons on both sides of the screen - this means that it's easy to operate the device with just one hand, but these buttons are a little bit fiddly. The 'n' logo on the front pretty much does what you'd expect it to - wake the device up, enter menus, activate the glowlight, etc.

The bottom of the device features a Micro-USB port, allowing you to charge the device and connect it to your computer.

The back of the device has a power button that also doubles as a lock and 'wake' button, and an imprinted Nook logo.

Start-up and Setup

The setup of the device is quick and easy. Being a simple e-reader, it's not the most customisable set-up there is - but you wouldn't expect it to be. When you first boot up the device, you can select the language you'd like menus to be presented in, set up the WiFi [which will allow you to access the Barnes and Noble store to download new books - if you don't want to sideload PDFs or ePubs, that is], and test out the GlowLight. 

In general, booting up the device does tend to take a while,  but as e-readers only tend to use battery power when the WiFi is on, reading light is on, or page is refreshing, most people are content with leaving their e-readers with the screensaver on, rather than completely powering down the device.

Conclusions

My first impressions of this device are quite positive - it looks good, and it appears to function well. The GlowLight is incredibly easy to use, and the text looks quite sharp. But will it stand the test of time? Keep an eye out for my full review for details!

Gallery

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Book Review: The Drought - Steven Scaffardi

First off, I should probably start off by admitting that, in this case, the title "book review" is a misnomer. No, I haven't sunk so low as to ignore the old adage "don't judge a book by its cover," but I did [somewhat reluctantly] manage to struggle through the first chapter of this novel.

Having been a member of goodreads for quite a while, I am always happy to receive new recommendations on what books to add to my ever-creaking shelves next. While I usually stick to reading other people's reviews, I was met with an interesting proposition, when stand-up comedian and author [and I use those terms loosely] Steven Scaffardi, offered me the chance to download and read his latest lad-lit offering "The Drought" for completely free.

Of course, being a stingy student, and a keen fan of the lad-lit genre [which is basically chick-lit but for guys, if you couldn't guess], I would've been a fool to say no, especially to someone who had been compared to previous authors I have read, such as Matt Dunn and Mike Gayle. Before downloading any free material, however, I decided to read the first chapter of the book that appears free-to-view on Scaffardi's blog.



Long story short, The Drought is about Dan Hilles, a fallen Casanova whose charm has gone MIA, resulting in a long period of sexual inactivity. Throughout the novel, he calls upon several friends to ensure that he gets his mojo back and the magic happening. Well, he does if you can get that far into the book, anyway.

Despite being familiar with the genre, and not exactly loathing the premise, I could not be won over by Scaffardi's first chapter at all. The writing style, whilst not entirely off-putting, isn't conducive to humour at all, and simply makes the reader feel as if they're wading through treacle to get to a punchline. The punchlines themselves, once you've found them, really aren't that special anyway, resulting in a mild 'heh', rather than the big, belly, Brian Blessed-esque laughs that can be generated from most other books in the genre. [But, of course, humour is subjective, so others may take to Steven Scaffardi's jokes like a duck to water.]

Dan Hilles is portrayed as a clumsy, yet well meaning person when it comes to love. In many ways, he could be The Big Bang Theory's Howard Wolowitz crossed with Mr Bean. Unfortunately, however, he has the humour of a funeral on a wet Wednesday. His mishaps don't, unfortunately, cause the reader to feel any sympathy for him, as he comes across as a bit of a sex-crazed douchebag [for lack of a better phrase].

At the end of the day, The Drought is exactly that: dry, boring, and seemingly never-ending. From the first, utterly mind-numbing sentence [which stirs up about as much intrigue as finding a twig in a heavily wooded area], the tale [or at least the first chapter] is a work that made me internally scream: "OH FOR GOD'S SAKE. IS THIS FINISHED YET!?"
A fellow reviewer remarked that the book made her cry - I can assure you that you won't be bawling tears of joy at this novel.

RATING: 2/10 - [First chapter only. I might read the rest of it when I have a death wish.]

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Book Review: One Day [+ A film too far?]

The Book Bit
It's not often that one can read a book that perfectly condenses life, warts-and-all, into 464 pages of paperback perfection. Most authors tend to capture a wonderfully two-dimensional perspective of life. It's either usually too happy, too sad, or too damn boring.
David Nicholls, however, has managed to flesh out the emotions to a tee, making the characters of his lengthy and emotionally dense tail an become immaculately believable in the mind's eye of any reader.
The main characters themselves are perfect representations of the genres that pertain to their gender: Dexter is a lad-lit author's dream, being higher class, rather attractive, and the boy-about-campus who doesn't mind a party or seven. Emma, in a strange yet fitting contrast has popped straight out of a chick-lit novel, with her staunch feminism, 'unconventional-cute-looks' and her permanent and unfailing strength to protest for something or other.
Strangely enough, these two opposite characters find themselves together in a hotel bed on St Swithin's Day, just after they've both graduated from Edinburgh University. While Emma has crushed on 'Dex' throughout the years at university, he is trying to plot an inconspicuous escape from the bed- but both are starry eyed and rather perplexed as to what lies ahead, with their vice chancellor ensuring them that the doors of opportunity are 'flung wide'. To Dexter Mayhew, thinking ahead too far forward in the future is terrifying, being one of those fashionable 'in-the-now' males.
As always, though, the heart-to-heart can't last forever, and we sadly see the pair go their separate ways- thought they vow to keep in contact. Dexter jets off around the world visiting far flung lands across the globe, and Emma keeps her feet on the ground in Britain, starting off by working for a community theatre company along with a closet racist and a definitely-not-closet exhibitionist. Both Dexter and Emma write to eachother furiously; staining pages with messages that tug on the heart-strings and convey that they like eachother just that little bit more than they're letting on. Dexter, too, rather surprisingly offers several poignant letters, showing magnificent care for Emma- though, of course, it could have been the exotic alcohol talking.
Throughout the book, where we see the pair's communications and meetings every St. Swithin's day. Dexter's career runs about as high as the emotions in the book, as he becomes a British television star. Emma's, however, sinks. After the community theatre stint, she ends up working in a cheap Mexican restaurant in North West London, and every day, slowly but surely, becomes another painful chore; serving customers several varieties of tortilla, and having to socialise with Ian Whitehead, a colleague and part time stand-up comedian who just can't find the off button on his 'humour'. Through this time, jealousy floods from the tale like a river flooding from a broken dam, almost to the point where the reader can taste it in their mouth. It seems as though, despite the main characters' blatant hankerings for each other, their paths will never cross in the same way again, as Emma gets involved with Ian, and Dexter gets involved with anything that moves and may have drugs.
Slowly but surely, as in real life, the characters change and adapt, and the emotions they create suddenly create a huge dark hole within the reader, matched only by the voraciously addictive nature of the book. At times, David Nicholls' bracing wordcraft creates massive moments of hunger, with the reader praying for the mental and romantic torture to end as he plays with the lives of Dexter and Emma, bringing them within touching distance of each other, but always, somehow, leaving them miles apart.
The book itself is incredibly well written, and as emotions run as high as the Alps and as thick as treacle, the plot compliments it perfectly, offering several twists that always leave the reader wanting more.
Rating: 9/10

The 'Popcorn Post' Bit
Assuming that you don't live under a rock, you'll probably know that One Day has been adapted into a movie. Living in London, it's hard to escape that fact, with a theatrical poster being cheaply applied to almost every bus in the capital.
For a book that was wonderfully expressive, and left high expectations in the mind's eye, the movie [or the trailer, at least] seems to be desperate and disappointing. While I am an Anne Hathaway fan, and am in awe of her various talents, her casting has been a big problem for me, and her 'Yorkshire' accent sounds like she took cut-price diction lessons from Kate Middleton.
In my mind, I would have preferred a home-grown, English cast to play the major roles, something that worked beautifully in an adaptation of another of Nicholls' books, 'Starter for Ten'.
It's safe to say that the film is a massive let-down, especially when compared to the most graphically pleasing media player in the world: the mind. Whether it ruins the reputation of the fabulous book, however, remains to be seen.

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