I initially wanted to root my reader because I thought it was the answer to the eternally missing Swedish-English translation dictionary. It is terribly cumbersome to balance three contraptions in bed just to read a book (reading light, the dictionary on my phone and the book itself). I have yet to find an e-reader that supports a Swedish-English translation dictionary. The main reader that is sold in Sweden is from Sony. Sony supports several translation dictionaries, but none are Swedish. AdLibris, a popular online  bookstore, sells a reader named Letto. Letto has a Swedish dictionary installed, but not for translation.

I had heard of rooting, which is presumably the solution to these pesky dictionary problems. Further research has discouraged me from even trying. Rooting an e-reader is the process of installing a root package onto a regular e-reader, and after following a complicated rooting procedure – the reader transforms into a tablet. Since I already have a tablet, I am not going to root my Sony PRS reader. If I have grossly missed the point of rooting, please enlighten me.

This is what happens to a reader when the rooting process goes awry.

The e-reading market has not been as lucrative in Sweden as in the U.S., and it is obvious by the lack of purchasing options.

Ideally, I would like an electronic device where I could connect to the library and download books. Right now, I have to download them from the computer, then transfer them to my phone or reader.

Recently, I bought and downloaded a .pdf of August Strindberg’s The Son of a Servant (Tjänstekvinnans son) because I could not find an .epub version. I read the first chapter in an earlier Swedish class, and I heavily relied on a dictionary. It is written in older Swedish, so obviously there are some words that are not going to be found in a modern dictionary. However, it’s mainly the endings that are different, so I could guess at most of them. The book itself is very interesting. It’s an autobiography of this crazy fellow named Strindberg, who happens to be one of the greatest authors in Swedish history. However, reading it is almost impossible on an electronic device. The text is too small, it can’t be enlarged, and I still have to go elsewhere to look words up.