It’s been smooth sailing and sweet sweet reading bliss since the moment my test drive with the Sony PRS-505 e-reader began nearly a month ago.
Until today.
Today, I am a sad Panda.
Like I have done many times in the past few weeks, I lace up my Nikes, strap Lil’ G into the jogging stroller, turn on the e-reader and head out for a great summer afternoon of sunshine, fresh air, exercise, and reading time. I am a multi-tasker, the need to be doing more than one thing at a time is in my bones. Even before the e-reader arrived I would take a book along for a walk – wrestling to hold it still on the handlebars of the stroller as I knocked off a few miles. The e-reader has made what some might view as a bizarre habit even easier, and I’ll take such long walks now that the husband is worried I’m sneaking off to have an affair. Yeah, right – in my nasty yoga pants and a sweaty tank top…and don’t forget I bring the kid along with me. No, the only affair is with my e-reader, and is has been wonderful – until today.
Which brings me back to the point of my point – my e-reader is no longer perfect. When I went to turn it on today, nothing happened. The power button is a sliding tab at the top of the device, and looking closer at it, it appeared to be jammed. It still slid, but not smoothly, and of course, there was the whole not turning on thing. Quelling my panic, I put the brakes on Lil G’s stroller and ran into the house to plug the e-reader into the computer – it was still working fine, and once plugged in, everything was normal. So I popped it back out, and went for a very nice long walk while reading Make Me Yours by Betina Krahn (which is turning out to be a great read, thanks to all the fellow test drivers who suggested her!)
I’m trying to figure out if it was something I did set the reader off, I like to walk while reading a chapter, then I toss the reader into the basket under the stroller and run for 5 minutes. Wash, rinse, repeat, until Lil’ G gets crabby or I start getting blisters. I don’t think I damaged it tossing it into the basket, it’s protected in there, and besides – it flipped out before I started my workout that day, not during or after.
Once I got back home I tried the power button again. Still nada. I showed it to the husband, and he said…yep, that’s jammed. He offered to unscrew the back and start poking around…but I’m just not cool with violating something I don’t own. I have considered using the Uncle Fester method: hit something repeatedly until it starts working again…but there’s that whole not owning it thing.
Doing some web-digging, I found a few others with the same issue, and the same band-aid solution. Which really isn’t so much a solution as it is a way to keep using the reader without use of a working power button.
I’m hoping the reader is just being a fickle wiener and when I test the button again in a few days it will play nice. Until then, I turned off the Sleep Mode and plan to charge it daily and leave it on.
So, like noticing your lover snorts when he laughs or chews really loudly (don’t worry H, you don’t do either of those) I have discovered that the e-reader has its flaws.
I just hope this doesn’t completely spoil our relationship…there’s still a lot of summer reading lovin’ to be had.
Melonie Johnson 