Posted by: Heather Sanderson - Manager, Digital Sales and Business Development

Can’t imagine reading a book on a screen? That’s the first reaction that I get every time I mention the idea of eBooks or an eReader. Well, that and the thought that you can’t curl up with a machine.

I’ll admit, I had some of these same thoughts flit through my brain at first, but once you see the Sony Reader, even the most avid bibliophile will be swayed. Trust me. I’m definitely one of them.

I just received the brand new Sony Reader 700 and wow, is it cool! It’s the first touch screen Reader from Sony. Now all you have to do is flip over the cover, touch the screen, and you’re given a list of all of the books you have loaded. Want to search through a book on your Reader? No problem. There’s a simple search button that makes a full keyboard pop up - and you just type directly on the screen, find all of the instances within the book that have the item that you’re looking for, and touch the one you want. You can even drag your finger across text to highlight it and the Reader will keep a list of all of the notes you’ve highlighted (that definitely would have been a handy trick when I was at University).

The Sony Reader is so book-like with its e-Ink technology that the experience is virtually the same as reading a print book. The screen size is roughly the size of a small paperback page, and you can change the font so that it’s bigger (for those of us whose eyes are failing them).

Not only is it a cool piece of technology, but the Sony Readers also helping us here at Random House of Canada to help the environment. In the past, publishers and editors would print off and read manuscripts and the marketing, publicity and sales reps also read from printed manuscripts to be able to sell each book effectively. Now, we have provided staff with Sony Readers so that they can read manuscripts and books in advance of publication without printing off a single page. We get to look cool, save trees, and save costs - what more could you ask for?