My wife is a very nice person—when she gets enough sleep. Without eight hours of uninterrupted sleep, she can be, well, grumpy. I, on the other hand, remain a perfectly cheerful human being with no apparent faults, with only five hours sleep. According to my wife, the problem began when I developed the most unfortunate habit of turning on the light in the middle of the night in order to read in bed—next to my wife while she was trying to sleep.
The truth is that I really enjoy cuddling up with a good book in bed in the middle of the night. As quiet as I tried to be and as low as I tried to keep the light, she would still bust my chops about how inconsiderate I was. I even tried a flashlight under the covers, a clip-on light, and a pair of illuminated reading goggles, but nothing seemed to help the situation. She made it abundantly clear that we were heading to separate bedrooms or worse, if I didn’t stop disturbing her in the middle of the night.
Just when our differences seemed irreconcilable, Christmas came along and the problem was resolved faster than a kid opening a present. Unwittingly my wife presented me with a “solution to marital difficulties” better than Viagra. It was called a “Pocket PC,” whatever that was. As I started to become acquainted with this marvelous device, I discovered that I could read eBooks on it using the built-in Microsoft Reader or by installing a variety of third-party “book readers.” I also noticed that its display had its own gentle backlighting, which could be adjusted quite low and still be viewable in the dark. I realized that I could read all I wanted to in bed without bothering my wife. That Christmas was four years ago and I haven’t read a “tree book” since.
Highlight and annotate text without ruining the book
The more I learned about eBooks and the programs that display them, the more amazing they seemed. Microsoft Reader allowed me to highlight text electronically in a variety of colors, which allowed me to color code different types of passages (Fig. 1). I know people who write all over their books, underlining and highlighting passages, turning them into a disgraceful mess. I could never bring myself to desecrate a book that way. But I can do all the highlighting I want on an eBook without hurting it a bit. Microsoft Reader also lets me add notes to the text, which are automatically indexed (along with any text I have highlighted) for easy retrieval (Fig. 2).
Fig. 1: Microsoft Reader lets you highlight text in different colors as well as add text notes.
Fig. 2: Microsoft Reader organizes all notes and highlighting into an annotations list for easy retrieval.
You can cut and paste text from the eBook into other Pocket PC applications. You can even cut and paste text from any notes you’ve added, but there’s a trick to doing that. You have to highlight the desired text in the note and the press the Ctrl-C keys on the soft keyboard to copy it. That’s a little awkward—Microsoft should add a pop-up menu to Reader, like they have in the other Pocket PC applications. Finally, you can add color sketches to the text, using different-colored virtual pens to make your drawings. Make as many book marks, annotations, and drawings as you want, never lose your place, and add a free version of Encarta to your Pocket PC so that you can tap on a word in any eBook and have its definition pop up on the screen. EBooks, where have you been all my life?
Variety of eBook readers available for the Pocket PC
Microsoft Reader is built into the device, but a number of third-party book readers are also available:
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