Together with Subterranean Press, the two guys worked on this project, which is interestingly quirky – to say the least.  It all started earlier this year when Scalzi had a “vision” of himself as an orc and Wil Wheaton as a warrior in a clown sweater, riding a unicorn pegasus kitten.  You see where this is going?

That vision has since then turned into a reality, with several well established authors joining the fray.  What Wheaton and Scalzi did was to ask artist Jeff Zugale to put the mental image to paper, so to speak.  The result? That image up there.

The fun doesn’t end there, though.  They made an “appeal” to authors to dig deep and share what they think it happening in the photo.  One author who took on the challenge makes the chapbook particularly enticing – Pat Rothfuss, author of Name of the Wind, easily one of the best fantasy reads today.

You can download the e-book for FREE from the web site, but make sure you make a donation.  Proceeds will go to the Michigan/Indiana affiliate of the Lupus Alliance of America, a non-profit organization. Now I gotta go and check it out myself.

Basically the race is on for e-book readers and I don’t expect the announced releases of “slates” from Microsoft and Apple will diminish this race, neither does Skiff. Together with Sprint they will be releasing a new generation of e-book reader featuring the “Metal Foil” e-Paper technology developed by LG Display.

The Skiff Reader will compete with the Amazon DX on size and thickness, featuring a display of 11.5 inches and a resolution of 1200 x 1600 pixels with 174 ppi. It will be full multi-touch screen and with stylus operation. Thanks to the Metal Foil technique and silicon build you’ll be able to bend the reader without cracking or shattering the screen.

As for the internal details it will feature a Marvell CPU, one week of average battery life, 3G enabled, short-range WiFi, USB 2 port, 4GB internal memory and a SD-card slot.

The Skiff Reader will be previewed at CES, no release date or price has been set yet.

I’m seriously considering purchasing an e-book reader this first quarter but even though I want to go with the hottest technology, the deciding factor will be if their service delivers content in Europe and what kind of files can be handled by the e-book reader.

Skiff Reader

If you’re not yet into e-books,  well  you’re in luck. It’s not hard to get into e-book reading today especially since you have several options on what e-book reader to get. Here are some of the e-book readers available in the market today  in case your interested to join the e-book bandwagon.Amazon Kindle

Of course you’ve heard of the Amazon Kindle.  What started as a 6-inch reader that displays e-books in e-ink against a gray background now has a larger 9-inch model. And it’s even going international as announced a few days ago. This means, that non-U.S. readers can now purchase the Kindle from Amazon and connect to the Amazon Kindle Store to get their fix of e-book goodness.

Sony e-Book Reader

The Kindle’s closest rival in the e-book reader market. It supports multiple file formats including ePub and PDF. Aside from tying up with Google books, Sony has also established its own online e-book store. The Sony eReader price starts from $199.99 for the Pocket edition and $299.99 for the Touch edition.

These two e-book readers are currently the major players in the eReader market. But there are other manufacturers who are planning to join the fun.

LG’s Solar Powered e-Book Reader

LG recently launched its own e-book reader and it has caught many people’s attention because  it is said to be solar-powered. It has a 10 centimeter wide thin-film panel that absorbs the sun’s energy to provide a full day’s worth of reading time. Other details of this e-book reader are yet to be announced but it is enough that we know that it is going to be one of those environment-friendly gadgets.

Plastic Logic’s Que Reader

Plastic Logic’s upcoming e-book reader has been getting a lot of attention lately.  In fact just today, it has finally been christened as the Plastic Logic QUE e-Book Reader. It is also rumored that this e-book reader will tie-up with Barnes and Nobles which recently launched it’s online e-book store.  With this tie-up Amazon should start worrying about its Kindle business.

Eee Reader

When Asus announced that it will be coming up with an Eee Reader, many got excited simply because Asus was able to to bring the netbook market to where it is right now with its famous Eee PC netbook line. Hopefully, the Eee Reader would materialize soon, as Asus promises to bring down the cost of e-book readers to the level which  majority of consumers will easily afford.

These are just five of the e-book readers that are expected to further shape the gradually becoming popular e-book reader market. Of course, it would be great if Google which announced its online e-book store recently, the Google Editions would join the fun and perhaps even with Apple and Microsoft might join the party soon.

Check this out… the world’s most famous e-book reader has just released version 2.0. It’s available for pre-order, and judging by the way Kindle 1.0 succeeded, I’m sure Kindle 2.0 will stride to the top as well. Kindle 1.0 was rumored to have sold at least half a million units in 2008. Not bad considering that Oprah Winfrey gave her golden endorsement. Kindle played a major role in bringing people to the good habit of reading. And who wouldn’t try to grab an e-book these days with a great gadget to read it with. At .36 inches (almost as thick as a child’s pencil), the Kindle 2.0 is thinner than the thinnest mobile phone. Weighs 10.2 ounces, and the edges doesn’t taper as sharply as before. Perfect, not too bulky, for men’s briefcases or the lady’s handbag.

The Kindle 2.0 has a much smarter and intuitive interface to keep you doing what you need to do with it… READ (Amazon says it’s the easiest reader there is). Display has been upgraded from 4 shades of gray to 16 shades of gray. Hmmm, kinda reminds me of my monochrome monitors long ago but for the Kindle… this is a good leap nonetheless. Colored Kindle soon? :) Wishful thinking.

Other improvements include 25% longer battery life and 20% faster page turns. And how about the read-to-me feature? I think this is the knock-out-punch. Kindle will read English text on the spot.

The Sony Reader

I was concerned initially that my weaker right eye would be my undoing when using one of these, but the paper-like screen technology really is very good indeed. On top of that, this newer model is slimmer and has been redesigned since the last version – making it look very good indeed.

More compact than many paperbacks, it weighs about 9 ounces (without cover), is 1/3″ thin, and holds up to 160 eBooks. You can easily hold it in one hand, and with its rechargeable battery, you can turn up to 7,500 continuous pages on a single charge.

The Reader Digital Book is a new way to read some of your literature, whether you’re into classics or modern stuff. The 6 inch display uses ‘E Ink’ technology, a fancy way of saying that Sony has replicated paper and ink in their display, or as near as you can get. I’d say that I’d like to compliment their work as it is a very natural looking display. You can also set it up for high contrast and resolution should you prefer, or magnify the copy if you are sight impaired.

With a compact and lightweight design you can take the Reader Digital Book almost anywhere. And with plenty of internal memory, and a slot for optional removable memory cards, you can take hundreds of titles, user-selected Web content, or other supported documents for reading on the go. It will hold approximately 160 averaged sized eBooks in internal memory and hundreds more with optional removable memory cards.

The Reader Digital Book allows you to search, browse, discover, and buy thousands of new releases, classics and popular eBook titles from the Integrated eBook Store and other participating websites. You can even go to other sites that have unsecured eBooks in file formats that the Reader supports. This translates into an incredible amount of content suitable for the Reader. Simply transfer your own documents too for viewing on the move.

So, is it going to be a real reading revolution that this gadget provides? Well, it is extremely neat. However, with so many ultra portable machines now coming out, you do have to wonder how a gadget will do that only does one single thing – albeit doing that single thing very well.

Based on recommendations I began to read the Sword of Shannara. It’s a relatively good yarn but the book I had was the compilation of the first three books, so you can just imagine how thick and bulky it is. A friend suggested that I try Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series because the paperbacks are widely available in bookstores. I followed his advice and started looking for a copy of the first book in the series, Wizard’s First Rule, but it looked like the stores only carried most of the latter volumes and never the first three books. Exasperated and desperate I decided to look for alternatives. I briefly toyed with the idea of ordering through Amazon but with a tight budget I just couldn’t afford it. So I settled for the next best solution — an e-book.

I was never a fan of e-books before because I could only read it on my PC, which prevents me from bringing it with me to my favorite reading corner — the toilet. But a look at the capabilities of my trusty Nokia E61i made me realize that I could put books in my phone! I proceeded to install an e-book reader on my phone and copied all 11 books in Goodkind’s series on my phone. Voila! Books at my fingertips anytime I want to read them without having to bring any bulky books anymore! The ease and convenience of bringing e-books has made me an overnight convert and addict. I now always remember to charge my phone because I bring it with me everywhere I go. I can now sneak in reading a few pages of what I’m reading anytime and anywhere — yes, even the toilet!