Chapter 8
Reading electronic books

Excerpt from the book....

I once read a business plan to create a magazine for insomniacs. The genius idea was in advertising on TV at night, when advertising charges are low and insomniacs are many. As one such sufferer, I am in need of reading material at night. Even when shattered after a long shift on-call, I cannot sleep without reading.

You know what is going to come next. My handheld does indeed offer a solution to this problem. Using the backlight, I can switch off all the room's light sources, and get myself comfortable with an electronic book. This experience is ten times better if you have a colour machine, and is another reason I recommended getting one in Chapter 2.

A small press for a small book

I am addicted to Peanut Press. The company publishes both current bestsellers and classics on handhelds. Palm bought the company, and a key ingredient of their success is the Palm Reader. This freely available program allows you to read their books on Palm and Pocket PCs. It also reads the DOC format, in which a lot of reference medical information is stored. Elegantly simple, a lot of thought has been put into how reading on a handheld differs from reading paper. You can change the font size, add bookmarks or annotations and, best of all, the book automatically returns to the page you were last at. This is quite important for the continuous interruption environment of a hospital.

End of excerpt. To buy the book, click here.

What would you like to do?