Monday, April 30, 2012

The downside of technology or Why sometimes paper books are best

On Saturday night, I was halfway through reading Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday on my e-reader. I'd seen the movie, with Ewan McGregor & Emily Blunt, a couple of weeks ago & thought I'd like to read the book as it's meant to be a little more hard-edged & satirical than the movie, lovely though that was. So, knowing the reservation queue at work was quite long, I bought an e-copy. I turned a page & suddenly the e-reader stopped, the little turning arrows appeared & that was it. I couldn't switch it off, get back to Home, nothing.

I reset it & got back to Home but now I can't access any of my purchased e-books. When I tap on them, I just get a message, ERROR Protected by Digital Rights Management. But I've bought them, I've paid for them, I haven't pinched or pirated them, they belong to me! I can access my free e-books, no problem.

The User Guide's Troubleshooting section doesn't mention this problem. The Sony Australia website was no help. I tried to send a comment but it wouldn't go. I was told I'd used unauthorised symbols although I'd only used the symbols they approved of like. , ! ? I took out all the punctuation but it still wouldn't allow me to send my question. I've found a Sony Reader Forum so I've posted my question there. Fingers crossed.

I've also had a problem with the Sony Reader software on my PC. It won't Sync anymore & Windows just shuts it down. It looks like a Windows problem but Windows doesn't have a solution & I think I'll have to do something called a clean boot &/or uninstall & reinstall Sony Reader which I'm not confident enough to do so I have to wait until my personal IT guru, P, can come over to help me. Fortunately my e-reader has WiFi & I discovered that I could download e-books from some sites directly on to the reader that way without going through Sony Reader. But at the moment, I'm a bit off my e-reader.
Oh, & my printer is also on the blink. Technology is a wonderful thing - when it works.

So, yesterday afternoon, after I'd spent some time trying to sort this out, I decided to give up on the e-world for a while & sat down with Katie Fforde's new book, Recipe for Love. Sometimes, old technology (& a good romance) is bliss.
Although I would quite like to finish reading Salmon Fishing in the Yemen one of these days...

13 comments:

  1. Sometimes I think technology is always against us, just when we think we have mastered it!

    I hope you get it sorted and get to finish it. Thank goodness for loving books.

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    1. I finished reading Recipe for Love last night with a sigh of contentment! It cheered me up, that's for sure. Fingers crossed for the e-reader. At least I can still read my free books but if I can't sort out the other problem, I'll return it. I've only had it a few months.

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  2. You are so right -- there is nothing as irritating as technology when it goes wrong and this sounds like the most ghastly problem. I do not have an e-reader (though I do occasionally read books on my iphone!) and do not want to have one -- not because it might break down but just because I love real books so much. But good luck in getting it solved.

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    1. A kind person at the Sony Forum has posted a whole lot of instructions that may help but I'm going to wait for a friend to work through it with me as he's much better at computers than I am. Thank goodness I have a few paper books to go on with!

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  3. Of course, a paper codex book is a piece of technology too. I wonder if when the codex was introduced there were armies of sceptics declaring that they would be sticking with good old fashioned scrolls?

    The problem is not technology per se, but rather that modern digital technologies often seem more prone to malfunction than their analogue predecessors. I love the radio and the web, so I'm not a complete Luddite, but I have yet to get a "smart" phone (I don't want the added expense of buying a "smart casual" one for Fridays, he he) and I have never yet handled, let alone acquired, an e-reader.

    I do hope you can get back to Salmon Fishing soon though. It is one of my favourite books: possibly my favourite comic novel.

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    1. Of course you're right & there's the whole cinema vs TV vs VCR vs DVD debate as well! I do agree that there seems to be an inbuilt obsolescence for a lot of electrical equipment these days. That shouldn't be a problem with a 3 month old e-reader though.
      I was more than halfway through Salmon Fishing so I may just buy a real copy if I can't sort out the problem.

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  4. Oh, Lyn, what a shame! I hope this all works out. At least you're hardly running low on proper books around the house :)

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    1. True Simon, I would never allow a machine to be my only option for reading - not that I have to worry about that for some time!

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  5. How frustrating!! It's bad enough when the battery's dead, but a couple of weeks I turned on my Nook after having it turned off for a while and all the books on it had disappeared. I was able to restore them but I don't know why it happened or how to prevent it. That's just another reason why I've avoided buying any ebooks - I think I will stick to the library's and the free sites like girlebooks.

    By the way, I know you like Cynthia Harrod-Eagles (as I do). I just borrowed her new book, Country Plot, and it's fun -- very, very Katie Fforde-ish but with a mystery thrown in (I haven't gotten to that part yet).

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    1. I only have about 30 bought ebooks, most of them were free but they're mine & I want to read them! I think I need to reauthorize the reader but I want someone cluey to hold my hand while I work through it. I borrowed Country Plot yesterday! I don't alesy read C H-E's standalone novels but I liked the sound of this one. I agree with you about likesob, I feel like that quite often at the moment!

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  6. I just had to jump back on and say that one of the word verification words on my last comment was "likesob." Doesn't that seem appropriate somehow? :)

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  7. I wish I had a copy of it. I would send it to you. Salmon Fishing, not the e Reader. Good luck, Pam

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    1. Thanks Pam. I do have hopes of being able to finish the book. I think I ned to do some updates etc & hopefully it will work!

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