I have always said that part of the joy of reading was holding the book, and turning the pages, but when the Kindle came out I bought one. There was a lot to improve on the original Kindle, but the e-ink electronic paper was very nice and the buttons were not too kludgey. However I was never able to get a light to attach well, so reading in the dark was a problem until I got a tablet. The Kindle app on the tablet did away with the buttons too, and the page turning became much more natural. The beauty of the tablet is that is can be held like a book and you can flip through the pages. But the real kicker is that whether you have a 600 page manual loaded, or a 20 page short story, the tablet weighs the same. I currently have over 200 books that I can get to anytime I have wireless access, which is most of the time. But, I can read the loaded books anytime!

I mostly read Science Fiction, but I have also acquired several technical manuals. My favorite author is C. J. Cherryh. Most of her books are available from Kindle, but I still keep a couple in hard copy. My favorite is Voyager in Night. I have a large print hard cover copy that I bought several years ago and haven’t seen available since. It is also available in the collection Alternate Realities for the Kindle and in hard copy (paper back). This is not really a novel. If you are a reasonably fast reader, you should finish this in 2 to 3 hours. Despite its lack of length, the story is rich in all the elements that populate a Cherryh story. Most of her stories follow a single human as they adapt to alien societies. While there are three human characters in this story, only one seems to actually hold on to being human, while the other two react and interact very differently to this bizarre and alien experience. While the ending is very poignant the story as a whole is rich and satisfying. I read it about once a year.

There are many others of her books that I would put very high on the list of great stories that follow the single human paradigm. Hunter of Worlds is a prime example of the single human in alien territory story she tells so well. The Faded Sun Trilogy where our human hero helps save a dying civilization by becoming a part of it. And the most spectacular is the possibly complete Foreigner Series. I was on book nine in hard back copy when the Kindle came out, and I got the last 5 books in the series as e-books. The reason I say possibly complete series, is that book 15 ends with an historical overview written by our human hero and another written by one of the prominent aliens. These historical synopsis seem to herald the end of the story. Like all great things I hope this is not the end. While it may be the end of the story about our human hero, there are several very interesting loose ends that need following. While we have met the nearby neighbors, there are some frighteningly aggressive aliens on their far border that have been left unresolved. Could they be the most terrifying aliens of all … Humanity?

C. J. Cherryh has written many other good stories and series, and I could fill another column with the list of the ones I have read. I must say that I have enjoyed them all.

While reading my favorite author could be done as easily in hard copy as an e-book, what the e-book revolution has opened up for me is all the new young (and not so young) authors. B. V. Larson is one of these, with one of the best space operas with his Star Force Series. The hardest thing about these new authors is that you are likely to find them in the middle of a series, and have to wait as they write the rest of it. I had to wait for this series to be completed, you will not, as it is now complete. On the other hand, maybe it isn’t.

While Charles Stross writes space opera and great alternate world stories, he also writes detective stories and other genres as well, and they are all well crafted stories.

One of the most recent new authors that I have run into is Jennifer Foehner Wells with her story Fluency. This is actually her second book, while my first experience with her writing. I really enjoyed this story, and truly hope for a sequel. If there is no sequel, I will still look forward to her next e-book.

All in all I have been more than satisfied with my e-book experiences. Reading the old authors, like Vern and Wells is free, as the copyright has expired. Finding new and interesting authors is easy, and the cost is less than paper. I carry my tablet everywhere. And while I primarily use it for reading. It has become as integral to my life as my smart phone. I am enjoying this new technology, and hope it will expand, as it seems to be doing, to make everything available in e-book format.