Among e-readers, the Kindle attracts the most attention due to its connection to Amazon for content and its easy-on-the-eyes E-Ink screen. But if you're already packing an XP-based netbook in a purse or briefcase, you can get much of the same functionality without carrying another device.
You'll need e-books (whose sales are forecast to surge in 2010) and an e-reader application to get started. Amazon's digital titles are readable only on the Kindle and on Apple's iPhone; and at some other stores the types of electronic books can be limited. eBooks.com and the newly launched Shortcovers.com, however, sell many current titles, their selections similar to those you'd find in an actual bookstore or sold digitally on Amazon.
Project Gutenberg lists heaps of free public-domain classics. The titles are distributed in several unprotected formats, including PDF, HTML and plain text. After you download a book, you can read it in a Web browser, Acrobat Reader, a text editor any other reading application you already have.
You'll need a special application to read copy-protected books. Either Microsoft Reader or Adobe Digital Editions, both free, can handle such files.
Now wouldn't it be great if you could thumb through the pages vertically instead of scanning a squat, horizontal screen? You can. If your netbook has the Intel GMA Driver for Mobile Control Panel (most do), click the Display Settings tab, check Enable Rotation, and click the 270° radio button. Click Apply. Depending on your system, you might be able to press Ctrl-Alt-Right Arrow or Ctrl-Alt-Up Arrow to toggle between the normal and rotated orientations.
If your machine doesn't have that video control panel or your key commands aren't working correctly -- mine didn't on an Acer Aspire One -- download EeeRotate. This free tool lets you easily toggle between the portrait and landscape orientations, using the same key commands noted above.
If you prefer not to hold the hardware while reading, you can have your PC read aloud books, poems or stories saved as PDF files, via the free Adobe Reader software. Just open a PDF file in Reader and choose the read-aloud function under the View menu. The voice is a bit mechanical and it occasionally stumbles over less common words; you're limited to material in the public domain, too. It's pretty effective, nonetheless.
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