No I couldn't wait, quelle surprise

I've been fooling around with the software for Barnes & Nobel's and Amazon's digital books. Both have apps that run on iPhones as well as computer-based apps and, of course, both have hardware of their own - Amazon has its Kindle and B&N its nook.

For the B&N test I found a cheap and eminently forgettable novel called "Hostile Intent," about a gadget-crazed, personality-free government killer who battles evil terrorists far and wide; for the Amazon project I found the complete Sherlock Holmes, illustrated, for $2.39 and read the first novel. Amusingly, both books cite liberals and foreigners as the root of all evil, so I guess we haven't made much progress on that problem in the last century or so.

The Barnes & Nobel iPhone app crashes; Amazon's works fine. The Amazon computer runs only on Windows at present, and is somewhat less slick than B&N's, but on balance I like Amazon's solutions best. I have no interest in either company's hardware. The iPhone makes a perfectly acceptable reading platform, and I have a MacBook so I'm portable enough as it is.

So, when I found email this morning informing me that Jasper Fforde's "Shades of Grey" has shipped (yay!) I downloaded the free sample from Amazon and - I know this is difficult to believe but it's true - by the time I'd finished the sample I was on the hook for the whole book. So it is now tucked safely away on both my phone and my laptop (the Amazon software keeps the two copies in sync).

It's cold here today - 13 degrees and very windy - and I've already been out twice doing errands, so I'm planning to curl up with a book for the rest of the afternoon.