This method worked much better when I always carried my Palm handheld with me and used it as my primary calendar and contact management device. The appeal of electronic books is that I always have it with me. Once I started using my BlackBerry to maintain everything, my Palm fell into disuse, and I no longer carried it with me. I started reading less. I needed a new solution.

I have started using Mobipocket on my BlackBerry and Stanza to convert texts. Mobipocket has a whole online store for purchasing texts, but the reader itself is free and can read non-purchased texts that I already have. Stanza can convert between plain text and the Mobipocket format. Unfortunately, Stanza is only available for Mac OS X and Windows. There are other options, but Stanza worked best.

Now I once again always carry the device with my current novel, and I can spend my free time reading instead of playing games on my BlackBerry.