"Excuse me, do you mind if I ask you which one that is?"
Everyday, busses enter Capitol Square in Madison, WI. It's really the hub of all bus traffic in the city. Whether they begin their journey there, or simply pass through is a matter of route. Most busses arrive early, and must wait until their scheduled departure time.
Jim Hendricks waits at this bus stop every morning. He walks from his apartment down the road, then waits for his bus to arrive. This morning was really no different than any other. The bus arrived on time and he boarded.
"It's a Nook Color", Jim replied.
"A what?"
"A Nook Color," Jim replied again. "From Barnes & Noble."
"Ah yes...", the old man finally realized.
Today was a little different. Someone on the bus actually talked to Jim. Everyday, Jim waits for the bus, he boards, and now recently, he reads.
A few weeks ago premiered a television program that he was very excited for. This program is called Game of Thrones. It is based off of a series of novels that his college friends Tony of Gregerson and Erika of then Lamm, but now of Aho had implored him to read. These friends were of like minds and tastes to Jim, and these books had captured their hearts.
"Game of Thrones is my favorite fantasy series. All of his characters are rich, and his story doesn't care for them at all. He kills of characters on a whim. The story is brutal. And you'd love it," Tony had stated.
"Yeah, Jim. You should read them," Erika reinforced.
"I'm sure they're fantastic, but these books look really really long, and reading is boring," the young and naive Jim had replied to their recommendations.
It was 6 months and 5 years ago that Tony, in a further effort to expose Jim to these fantastic novels, had invited him to Madison. The author, George R. R. Martin, had recently published A Feast for Crows, the fourth book in the series, and was on a book tour stretching from the salty seas of the Pacific to the Atlantic. It was here that Jim met GRRM, shook his hand, purchased his books, and had them autographed.
But Jim was stubborn, and engulfed in course work at the time. His stubbornness persisted even after university was completed, and began work in the midwestern city of Madison. Many of his collegues had read the works, and shared their recommendations. Man, everyone loves these books. But it was only until he saw the televised product that he began to head their words. He and his friends watched in splendor as the distinct characters and vivid environments came to life. After a few episodes, they were hooked. They were fans. And it was lucky that Jim owned the novels, so they all could read how it was originally wrote.
After 5 episodes had aired, Jim started reading Game of Thrones. He had been discussing the program with Chris of Schroeder at his office. This show is pretty damn awesome, but there is a lot going on. I really wonder how much of this stays true to the books. So he read. For the first time, in a long time, he read. And of the recommendations, they were all justified. For he did like the books.
"I really like it. I bought it mostly for a vacation, and I've been using it quite a lot since then," he continued to reply to the old's man question on the bus.
Reading the novels had been great at first, but his yearly vacation across the seas to the volcanic Islands of Japan had drawn near. He had a mere 200 pages remaining in Game of Thrones which he could surely finish given several hours. I'm just about done with this book, but I don't have to time before I leave. I can't bring both books with. They take up too much space.
He recalled a coversation he had with Lady Kait of Stites a week or two prior. Though, he didn't recall the conversation perfectly as it had been at a bar, and Jim drinks many beers when he's at a bar. He thinks this conversation was born out of talking about the band they at the bar to see.
"I find it odd how much I've completely switched to digital music. I still feel like I'm one of those people who enjoys owning a physical copy of something. But, ever since I bought this iPhone, I've stopped buying physical copies of music. Almost everything is digital. The only physical copies of music I purchase is Vinyl, as I feel that's the ultimate physical representation of music these days."
"Ya know, maybe books are the same way. Having a first edition hardcover copy of book, is like having a vinyl copy of a vintage album. And there are many books I don't care about but still want to read. Maybe buying an ereader makes sense for those titles. And portability too. I'm going on vacation rather soon, and can't hulk around those mamoth tombs with me everywhere. It makes sense to buy one of those things."
"Yeah, I could see that," Kait had replied, though probably just to humor him, as he was talking about boring things. She smiled, and they went back to listening to the band.
A few days later, he found himself in Barnes & Noble. He was interested in the Nook Color above other ereaders for 3 key reasons. The first was because of his hatred for e-ink. e-ink was monotone and had an annoying lag between turning pages. The second point had been it's OS built on Android. There were several articles on tech blogs saying how easy it was to jailbreak the device, and find yourself with a full Android tablet. Unlocked, it would be able to read any file format, read emails, looks at maps, translate Japanese. The third point was the most important given the second point, the price. It was only $250 for a easy-to-unlock tablet device designed as an ereader that could do much more. After an hour of looking it over, and playing with it, he bought it.
He finished A Game of Thrones in transit to vacation. Before returning from vacation, he was able to read over half of the second novel, The Clash of Kings. Along with those novels, he packed several maps, an itinerary, a shopping list, and a Japanese dictionary on his Nook Color, and they were very helpful. For this, he was grateful.
Back on the bus he relayed all of this information to the old man. "So you can do a whole lot with it," the old man replied after a second of digesting what was just said. Perhaps Jim had said too much information, and was probably boring people again. They went back into silence. Jim turned back to the Nook Color to continue reading.
He has started the third book in the series, A Storm of Swords and intends to read them all.