• A Tear at the Edge of Creation, by Marcelo Gleiser
• Sh*t My Dad Says, by Justin Halpern
• The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, by Deepak Chopra
• The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, by Carl Sagan

Fiction

• The Giver, by Lois Lowry
• Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E. Butler
• Parable of the Talents, by Octavia E. Butler
• Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater
• My Name Is Memory, by Ann Brashares
• Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
• Going Bovine, by Libba Bray
• This Is My Letter To The World: The Omikuji Project Cycle One, by Catherynne M. Valente
• The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood

First of all, my thoughts on using an eReader in general. For brevity’s sake: I love it. Easy to use, easy on the eyes, easy to store books. It’s also comfortable to hold, and I haven’t experienced the purported slow page turning. It’s no slower than turning the page of a tangible book. Also, the e-ink display mimics the experience of reading a paper-and-ink page, so there’s no issue with glare or the potential eye strain of prolonged reading on LCD screens.

Naturally, I customized the wallpaper right away:

I deliberated over the various eReaders (the Barnes & Noble nook, Amazon Kindle, Sony eReader, and Kobo) for awhile, but the nook best suits my needs. Several people were curious about why I chose the nook over the other eReaders, so here you go: features that won me over.

• Barnes & Noble in-store specials, and the in-store ability to read books for free
• Replaceable battery
• Customized wallpaper and screen saver
• The ability to try the nook at Barnes & Noble before buying
• Touchscreen navigation
• Subjective preference of the nook’s aesthetic over the other eReaders
• The ability to lend ebooks
• Memory expansion
• Sudoku :)

I’ve watched video reviews on the other eReaders, and it seems like most people are pretty happy with their purchases regardless of which device they chose. It depends on what you want.

A quick note on Barnes & Noble’s in-store features. It was a smart move on B&N’s part to incorporate this. There are a number of bookstores within reasonable driving distance of my home, but now I’ll probably always choose B&N because of the nook.

Larger photos of the nook and the case I chose are after the jump (click “Read More” below). But first: Do you have an eReader, and if so, how do you like it? If you’re in the market for an eReader, which one do you think you might prefer, and why? What do you think of eReaders and ebooks in general?

Additional Photos

The larger version of the above photo, with customized wallpaper featuring art by Ashley Nava. You can see part of the touch screen navigation menu. By the way, some of these photos are at an angle because of the glare off the plastic/touchscreen from the lights above my dining room table. Sorry about that.

A view of “My B&N Library”, which lists books purchased directly from Barnes & Noble.

Display of a page from an ebook I’m reading.

The case I chose, the Industriell Easel Cover. I liked the ability to clip the nook into place in lieu of the straps I’ve seen on others.

A view of the case standing up. I haven’t used it this way, but I thought some people might want to see it.

Nonfiction

• The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, by Ray Kurzweil
• Manuscript Makeover: Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore, by Elizabeth Lyon

Fiction

• (Re-Read) Perdido Street Station, by China Miéville
• Galapagos, by Kurt Vonnegut
• Utopia, by Thomas More
• The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold

• (Re-Read) The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great, by Donald Maass
• The Ethics of Biotechnology (Biotechnology in the 21st Century), by Jonathan Morris
• Mismeasure of Woman: Why Women Are Not the Better Sex, the Inferior Sex, or the Opposite Sex, by Carol Tavris
• Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies — and What It Means to Be Human, by Joel Garreau
• Writing as a Sacred Path: A Practical Guide to Writing with Passion & Purpose, by Jill Jepson

Fiction

• Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood
• The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera
• (Re-Read) Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
• The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein
• The Labyrinth, by Catherynne M. Valente
• The New Atlantis, by Francis Bacon
• Veniss Underground, by Jeff VanderMeer
• (Re-Read) 1984, by George Orwell
• Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Palimpsest, by Catherynne M. Valente

Nonfiction

• How To Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, by Orson Scott Card
• Endless Universe, by Paul J. Steinhardt and Neil Turok
• Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior, by Temple Grandin
• (Re-Read) Between the Lines: Master the Subtle Elements of Fiction Writing, by Jessica Page Morrell
• Rhetorics of Fantasy, by Farah Mendlesohn

Fiction

• In the Cities of Coin and Spice, by Catherynne M. Valente
• Needful Things, by Stephen King
• The Dead-Tossed Waves, by Carrie Ryan
• Jennifer Government, by Max Barry
• Impact, by Douglas Preston

Substantial blog posts are brewing in the back of my mind, but my main focus for April needs to be Omphalos. My self-imposed deadline for completing the first draft is April 20, and then I’m off to the Pikes Peak Writers Conference in Colorado Springs.

Also, here! Have a sleepy gecko!

Nonfiction

• Technologized Desire: Selfhood and the Body in Postcapitalist Science Fiction, by D. Harlan Wilson
• Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions, by Fredric Jameson
• One Nation Under Dog: Adventures in the New World of Prozac-Popping Puppies, Dog-Park Politics, and Organic Pet Food, by Michael Schaffer
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan
• Earth, Air, Fire & Water, by Scott Cunningham
• Biotechnology And the Human Good, by C. Ben Mitchell, Edmund D. Pellegrino, Jean Bethke Elshtain, John F. Kklner, and Scott B. Rae

Fiction

• Promise of the Wolves, by Dorothy Hearst
• American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis
• In A Perfect World, by Laura Kasischke
• Fragment, by Warren Fahy

• Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, by Natalie Goldberg
• Give ‘Em What They Want: The Right Way to Pitch Your Novel to Editors and Agents, A Novelist’s Complete Guide to : Query Letters, Synopses, Outlines, by Blythe Camenson
• The Case against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering, by Michael J. Sandel
• Speculations on Speculation: Theories of Science Fiction, edited by James Gunn and Matthew Candelaria
• Opium Culture: The Art and Ritual of the Chinese Tradition, by Peter Lee

• Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
• Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman
• Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
• The Unincorporated Man, by Dani Kollin and Etyan Kollin
• The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
• Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters, by Kathleen Ragan
• Biting The Sun, by Tanith Lee
• Genesis, by Bernard Beckett
• Everything That Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O’Connor

Wait, let me re-phrase that. Fiction writers who want to be good fiction writers must read fiction. Frequently. Widely. Voraciously. Apart from writing, it’s the best way to improve your abilities as a storyteller, a writer, a wordsmith, a wordweaver. Writing fiction without reading fiction is like exhaling without inhaling, talking without listening. It’s like teaching without knowing your subject. Dispensing wisdom when you haven’t lived.

Tell me what you’re reading. Tell me what you’ve read in the past and still think about today. Tell me about books that seduced you with their delicious, rich imagery. Tell me about the stories you want to swim in.