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Storm Reading


As someone who has lived either next to or in the Caribbean basin most of my life (and taught science), I'm well acquainted with the effects of storms as they occur and the power loss aftermath. Whenever my power has gone out for an extended period of time I've always loved that my book collection is still right there to entertain or to teach me. This is still one of the great things about my e-ink readers over my LCD readers (like my iPad). The fact that I can read for over a month on a charge will usually take me through any power problems that I'm dealing with and since I can still buy books with my Kindle using the cell tower network, means I'm not limited to books that I've already read.

Even more though than the lack of power issue, I love my eink reader for when I travel. It used to be that I would have to pack a good number of books for a trip, once to read in the car or plane getting there and coming back, and some to read while relaxing at where ever I was going. But with my ereader now, the only time I can't use it is when the plain is taking off or landing. One recent trip that I made was to work on a project in the Dominican Republic, up in a village in the mountains near the Haiti border. There power was often out, but with my ereader I was able to read when I had time, along with adding notes about what I was reading. I've even converted student papers so that I could review and comment on them and then compile my comments to send back to my students. Doing all that on a single charge over the two weeks I was there.

So if you are a reader who reads lots of books, you may have already discovered the joy of carrying not only the book you are reading, but also a good number more, and being able to read for weeks on a charge, no matter the weather or if the power is on or off.

e-Reading After a Hurricane
Good E-Reader (blog)
So how does someone who is an ebook freak get along during a prolonged power outage? I wondered this myself, and I offer my conclusions. What I learned is applicable to any disaster. During most of the outage it was cold and the house got down to about ...
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