There’s a new ebook reader on the market AND IT’S THE WORST THOUGHT-OUT THING EVER!!! The BeBook, yours for just 329.95 EUR ($510.67), has no way to connect to the Internet and download books, which, okay, neither does Sony’s Reader—but the Sony Reader is cheaper, not more expensive, than Amazon’s Kindle, which does have that feature. Hello BeBook people? You went the wrong direction with your pricing.

The important thing, though, is that an ebook reader be able to open your ebook files. BeBook handles .doc, .txt, .rtf, .pdf and .html files.

Erm…

What about the formats most of the ebooks I buy come in—eReader? Mobi? How about DRM’d PDFs? Sure I have some .txt, .html and DRM-free PDF files, but the majority of my ebooks come from places like booksonboard.com, ’cause I’m on a buying things kick rather than a pirated downloads things kick, and although booksonboard.com offers DRM’d PDF as an option, I always go for eReader (first choice) or Mobi formats instead because if we’re talking just text, eReader and Mobi give me a far more enjoyable reading experience than PDF. I’m good with Plucker, too. In fact, I love how Plucker measures your progress not by screens but by percentage. What I’m saying, though, is BeBook can’t handle my ebooks, so what the freak good is that?

Did these guys develop this in a dark closet or what? CHECK YOUR CALENDARS, GUYS! IT’S 2008! I mean…fuck! It doesn’t have one cool new or innovative feature. Not one. It’s nothing more than an exercise in overpriced redundancy.

Curious, I added up what I spent on books¹ through Amazon for the past six months. It comes to nearly $260. Not a fortune, but a decent chuck of change. Then I realized I spent about the same amount on ebooks over at Booksonboard.com (way cheaper than Fictionwise.com—why does everyone use Fictionwise?), plus $100 at Target.com (Christmas giftcard from my mom—I like to turn those into books. I believe, however, that buying books through Target.com is exactly the same as buying them through Amazon.com, except without free shipping). That puts me at around $600 for half a year, just on books. (The other half of the year is probably half that since $300 of the $600 came from Christmas giftcards. But still. That’s $900 in books a year!)

(…and worth every cent.)

¹Just books. If I added in everything else I ordered through Amazon…yikes! We won’t go there. DO NOT WANT TO KNOW!

ETA: I just had a thought—maybe I should stop giving books away when I’m done with them. I could hoard them instead and build a retirement home out of them thirty, forty years from now. At least I’d always have something to read on the toilet….

ETA2: The reading hobby, it occurred to me, is nothing next to my concert-going hobby. Yeesh. If for some reason you know how much I spend on tickets, gas, hotel rooms, meals out and merch, do not freaking tell me. Some things I prefer to remain in the dark about. THIS MEANS YOU, CREDIT CARD STATEMENT.