A Happy Boy, and a not-yet happy reader

This is another short post on a scandinavian novel. Bjørnson's "A Happy Boy", finished in 1860, this is a story about the coming-of-age of a boy named Oyvind. He approaches life with a positive outlook in general, but as his relationships expand and as his responsibilities stack up, he learns that the world has a colder edge to it, and that his place in caste creates barriers to his dreams. Weaving through this story is a budding love with a feisty girl named Marit.

My struggle doesn't have anything to do with the novel. It has to do with Kindle for Mac. I got the free download for my Macbook Pro and my iPod Touch. The cool thing about that software is that it syncs to where I was reading, whether I was using my computer or my iPod. Another great thing is that this book was downloaded for free (it's public domain) and I received it all but instantly. No shipping costs. A great way to try out this e-book phenomenon. No costs whatsoever unless you want to count your DSL hookup. And the devices you use.

The downside to an e-reader is that I felt limited by the one-screen-at-a-time functionality. Yes I know, a person can turn back to a previous page, but I had the sense that I was walking on a beam with my reading. As one who tends to back read, it was bothersome.

I found that the Kindle for iPod was tooled out better than for the Mac. You would think it would be the other way around. With the iPod I could "dog ear" pages, but I didn't experiment with that too much. With the iPod I could also write my own notes and attach them to the text, even in this free book.

The Mac version of the software would do well to build in some of these interactive tools. Full note functionality. Dictionary. Bookmarking. Since it's digital a concordance would be handy.

I will try again. The convenience of getting a book by download is wonderful, but the interface needs work, in my humble opinion.