E-Readers... or Something I Never Thought I'd See

I spent several hours yesterday afternoon on the verge of tears. Why? Because I couldn't get the Overdrive app on my iPad to work. I never thought I'd become so reliant on an e-reader. Ever. I mean... I love the feel of a print book. I love being the first person to read a new book. I love the touch of the pages. I love the smell of a book. It's a sensory experience that I thought I'd never been willing to give up. But gradually over time, I did. I probably only read about 2 or 3 print books per year.

There are three things I like most about e-readers (and possibly the only three things I really like about them).

1. I read books on my iPad. I have four different apps for reading: Overdrive, 3M (which I think is now called something else), Kindle and Nook. I carry one device with me, that I would be carrying any, and I have an unlimited library of books to read. As long as I have wifi, I can get new books. But even without wifi, I have a nice little library of books I've picked up here and there already on my device. I no longer have the fear of running out of books to read while away from home.
2. I can read in bed at night without having the light on. The light coming from my e-reader doesn't bother the guy I share my bedroom with as much as my book light used to bother him. And I can see better.
3. I like being able to adjust the size of the font of the print. My eyes just aren't what they used to be.

As I wrote, I've gotten more and more attached to my e-reader. I got a little bothered when on Saturday my e-reader got a little sluggish. It took quite a lot longer to "turn the pages" than it had previously. On Sunday, I got a little worried when the problem of turning pages became much worse. Did I really want to wait minutes between finishing one page and starting the next? You're right. No, I did not.

On Monday morning, I could no longer open the book I was trying to read. It was time for some serious trouble shooting. 

Step One: Close the app. Reopen. Have problems gone away? NO

Step Two: Restart the iPad. Turn it completely off. Turn it back on. Open the app. Have problems gone away? NO

Step Three: Delete the app and redownload. Be sure you have your password so you can sign back in. Okie dokie.

It was certainly easy enough to delete the app and redownload it. Easy peasy. 

Then the trouble began. I had to log into Overdrive again. I had my Adobe password which is how I thought I'd logged in to Overdrive in the first place  Only when I went to log in, my Adobe password did nothing. Nothing. I was able to see which email was associated with Overdrive right there on the app. I clicked on "Forgot your password," typed in my password and got the response that I had no account associated with that email. Really? What's going on here?

I searched my password books for Overdrive. I'd never written down a password for Overdrive. Just for Adobe... and that email didn't match. So I started guessing at passwords. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong... and wrong! (I tried some of the passwords many times. Back when I set up my Overdrive, I wasn't using all that many passwords.) I searched all over the Overdrive help section to see whom I could contact. They suggest you contact the library where you first signed up for Overdrive.

Okay, now we have a big problem here. I signed up with Overdrive (for audiobooks) when I still had a library card in New Jersey. I haven't had that library card in years. How was a library I was no longer affiliated with going to help me?

I decided I'd just set up a new account. (I used the same email address that Overdrive said was associated with my account. Interesting how when I signed up for the new account it never said that there was an account already associated with that email. I found that pretty interesting.)

I added my library to the Overdrive app, then I put in my library card number and PIN. Finally, I went to the library website to redownload the book I was in the middle of reading. I got an error message saying that if I want to download again, I have to use the Overdrive account I'd used to originally download the title. Who knows whatever happened to that account?

After all that frustration, I had what seems to be a working Overdrive app - but with no access to the book I was reading. Grrr. I searched for another title, just to make sure I'd be able to open and read any new books I took from the library. That worked. Thank goodness. And miraculously, I was able to find a different version of the book I'm reading (Breath of Snow and Ashes, book #6 in the Outlander series). And happily, I could open the book.

One advantage of having a new account is that I was able to download the Overdrive app onto my iPhone so now, even when I'm caught out without a book, I'll be able to read whatever is on my iPad. And it's supposed to sync to my latest bookmark. In the past, I wasn't able to get the two devices to sync. At all. Ever.

Last night, I went to read in bed. I opened my book, it asked if I'd like to go to my latest book mark, it opened to Chapter 4. Yay. 

Only there's a little problem. I can't change the size of the font. Really? So now I'm down to only two reasons why I like my e-reader. But can I give it up?