I’m going Kobo

Recently a few days ago, I’ve talked about choosing  an e-book store to prevent my books from turning yellow. I’ve went through all the different things they had to offer, downloaded, the kobo app and after awhile out on a sunny day to work, I’ve decided to purchase my very first book. Here’s is what i went through.

Kobo Website

Kobo Website- Click for link to website 😀

Out of curiosity, during the part when I downloaded the kobo app on my android phone, everything seemed a little new. At first it looks pretty empty and being the new guy, I was at first lost but things eventually came to place after a bit.

Screenshot_2013-05-09-09-23-49The home screen welcomed me with a simple view of recent activity on the top which actually featured what I had read recently, and the bottom section was divided into library, which is the library books that I’ve downloaded/purchased goes in there.

The reading life section was a cool feature keep track of your reading stats and just beside to it, is the kobo store.

The design didn’t really bother to me, and it wasn’t really my main concern especially for the home screen. I only  like that there isn’t a need to scroll.

 

 

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The store has quite a selection of books, and most of the bestsellers out there are in, at least for my taste. It does have a book that costs at low as $0.99 cents, and a few couple of nice free- ebooks to download, and categorised into different sections, with more subsections in it, and i didn’t have time to explore all the categories because there was just too many genres, some that I’ve never even heard of like ‘steampunk’.

I was more curious about how reading a book would be like on my small screen, so i downloaded a free-ebook to try it out, and the first book i bought was Icefire, by Patty Jensen. It was a short story, and it looked pretty nice. Clicking the next page was as easy as a tap on the side.

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I like the fact that there was a highlight button, a place to take notes, and simple things like search and share.I can even highlight a word i don’t know, for example and kobo app automatically searches the web for its meaning.  In the right picture, the settings allow me to also scroll through pages, change the text size and font, adjust the apperance, other settings and comment on the pages that will eventually be shared with other readers. (all this did take a bit of exploration to really know what it was.)

Ahah! Share with other readers, adjust the appereance? This is when things get even more interesting.

Screenshot_2013-05-09-09-26-40 The appearance section allows me to change settings, between classic white background, to night (for reading at night) and also the sepia, which i prefer to use the most. I was at first using the classic method to read, but eventually my eyes went crooked  started to strain even more, so sepia really helped me loosen up.

I’ve tried the night function once while reading my book on my bed lying face up, and it does help read at ease too. The screen simply turns the background black and the words white. This i felt, was a great feature.

 

 

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Some other features that i felt interesting was that there was notifications to inform you of the activities going on in your reading life.There is also award badged that can be earned like reading at night, or reading a new book, or taking a note in a book. It really got me motivated to want to collect badges, and share them with my friends, and show them how badass i am with books 😀

I can say some of the badges are really cute. The picture on the left showed that I’ve already earned 3 badges, one for joining Kobo(Welcome to reading Life), another for putting a book at my own library(i ❤ my library) and also for reading a new book(Once upon a time)

I’ve now collected 9 badges, see told you i was badass.

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After all the days worth of thinking whether or not i should have bought a book, I’ve decided to finally call it a deal (with my other self) and went on to purchase my first book bundle, The Game of Thrones bundle pack from 1-4 , simply because I’ve been told that the book gave more details compared to the show, which is really true. It cost me about $22 dollars plus all the currency change and that to me was a pretty good deal. Instead of having 4 books in my room now, I’ve my books, complete with a search feature, a share feature, and also at the same time see other people comments on the book, likes, dislikes and who’s reading.

No more reading in the dark with a small lamp that i try so hard to read with, and also more space for my room. Just to let you know that I’m doing all this in my mobile phone, and the app is free.

F8 Launch from Kobo on Vimeo.

This is really cool video if you’re more into seeing that reading. I find that it’s really such a helpful software that have helped me to read my books online i think it will also do for you.

So if you’re into reading and finding a method to solve your books stacking up, then i can say one of the solutions would be to go for Kobo.

www.kobobooks.com 

Mobile suffice for now, but Maybe i shall get a kobo Glo e reader soon.  🙂

Thanks for reading!

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Trying to overcome books turning yellow.

The recent days, I’ve noticed a change in the color of the books i bought, they are starting to turn yellowish by the side, do you get that kind of thing? I’m not so sure, if its just this old wooden shelve my grandma found somewhere i guess, but she kept my books hidden inside this area, and my book started to turn.

Besides that, it could also be the reason that I’m not storing it at a proper place. My friend told me she kept her books in a sort of bag, so it doesn’t turn. I think it reminds me of those   air tight proof sealer that keeps things fresh. The thing i don’t understand still is because its not like my books are so old, I’ve bought it only for less than 3 months back, and its already turning.

Things i was thinking of :

  1. Buy an air tight container
  2. Find a good spot to place my books
  3. Changing location or spot
  4. Getting an E-reader/tablet

The moment i was thinking of this, i quickly went up to google for ‘how to keep my books from turning yellow’ and most of them gave answers such as due to sunlight, the moisture of the surrounding air, and how you need to gap the books because you need air circulating the books if its near a wall and buying better books, or acid free paper which cost more, other( OMG, i really don’t know that taking care of books is so complicated!)

The next concern i had was also how much limited space i’m in. Technically, i don’t own my own room. I’m sharing the room with my grandma, that has most of her things, and i don’t intend to change the layout of it, simply because it’s my grandma’s room, and respecting that its her room, I have a good feeling she finds the things she makes and do priceless. I’m just sharing it with her.

Let me show you what I’m working with here.

grandma's room with laptop view

grandma’s room with laptop view

I hope you ignore the messiness . so basically, everything else besides the bed which seems to be filled with so much mattresses I don’t know why but that’s where I sleep , and things that are behind this picture, is my grandma’s and in no other condition am I able to shift things around so much. I had my books down on the floor, but it used to be hidden at the back of the table behind my Mac. (at this point of time, i kind wish i had my room that i can work on because i also want to chase my dreams.)

I think that at the end of the day, I feel the solution to not buy so much books, and keep making the place I’m at crowded would be to invest on a good e-reader.

I’ve thought of kindle , but apparently they don’t ship it to my country, though I’ve seen someone using it here somehow, which i believe took a lot of time importing. The next thought i had was buying kobo touch or glo, which is the next alternative which is available but somehow online and bought through someone who imports the things here.

The next alternative i could find was simply using a tablet, but i’d prefer using just e-reader so that i can focus on pure reading without having the distraction of other apps.

So that’s what i have going on , what’s your take on this? do you somehow encounter a similar problem as mine?

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