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Saturday, August 28, 2010

David Sedaris, You've Been Found

Well, I haven't blogged in awhile.  I either I haven't been inspired or I've just got too many things going on.  But, since writing about my struggles to purchase a David Sedaris ebook, I have made some progress on this front.  Finally, Borders came out with an eReader for the Blackberry.  Sure enough "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" was on the list.  Imagine my joy!  I bought the book and started reading it.  The Borders eReader isn't near as good as Mobipocket eReader, but it is functional.

Then, I decided to get a Droid 2.  I really love my new Droid.  It does a lot more than the Blackberry.  To my pleasant surprise, Borders has and eReader for Android as well.  When I installed it, I pointed it to my existing Borders account and -- BINGO!  My book showed up in the list.  I expected that when I opened it, my bookmark would not be available and I would have to find my place in the book.  I was right.  What I DIDN'T expect was that this would be the case EVERY TIME I OPEN THE BOOK!  Who releases software like this?

I cannot imagine how anyone could let this happen.  This is a "give them the razor, sell them the blades" scheme. If the razor is no good, you're never going to sell any blades.  So, I'm reading "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" from the inside out.  Or, maybe just in some strange random pattern.  I've honestly lost track of which chapters I've read and which I missed because I'm returned to random pages every time I open the book.  I came up with the brilliant idea that I would just finish a chapter each time I read the book.  But, even the table of contents navigation takes you to random pages

Thank god that there's a version of Kindle for Android.  For a minute there, I thought Borders was going to get my book business away from Amazon.  Not going to happen.  I'm all about supporting Michigan companies, but they must earn my business before they get to keep it.